Two Arkansas waitresses are duking it out in court over $300,000 in lottery money that was allegedly supposed to be split in half.
Leslie Underwood filed a lawsuit against Mandy Vanhouten on Tuesday (Jan. 2). The friends worked together at Sportsman Drive-In in Stuttgart. According to Leslie, their boss, Steven Luckadoo, gave them a bunch of scratchers on Dec. 22, and the deal was they would split any of the winnings between them. But as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports, Vanhouten “skipped town,” made off with the cash, and never returned to work. Ouch.
However, The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery claims that Vanhouten purchased the winning ticket herself at a local liquor store. $300,000 is quite the return on a $10 investment. Anyway, Underwood is asking Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chip Welch to freeze her half of the winnings until the matter gets settled. She has also asked for a temporary restraining order against her (former?) friend to prevent Vanhouten from using the money.
Apparently lotto disputes aren’t that uncommon. Previously, the courts had to get involved in deciding who was entitled to $1 million ticket in White County back in 2012. In that case, one woman picked a discarded lotto ticket from the trash of a convenience store. The store’s manager sued her, alleging to be the rightful owner of the ticket, as it had come from the store’s receptacle for losing tickets, which had been labeled “DO NOT TAKE.” Both sides eventually agreed on a confidential settlement.
As it pertains to Leslie and Mandy, however, no hearings have been scheduled.
