In La Coruña, a high-profile case continues over a missing Primitiva lottery ticket worth €4.7 million. On trial is the owner of the retail outlet, Manuel Reija, who is accused of attempting to claim the large prize for himself. According to El Pais, the man insists he did not intend to take the money, despite having contacted the Sociedad de Loterías y Apuestas del Estado (Selae) four times requesting payment.
Key questions about the defendant’s version
Manuel Reija told the court that on July 2, 2012, he found the winning ticket on his desk when he was alone in the shop. He claims he did not know who the ticket belonged to and did not try to prevent the owner from being found. However, the prosecution points to suspicious actions with the lottery machine: before the major win was checked, other number combinations matching a client’s date of birth were processed, and then those same numbers were used for the following week. Investigators consider this evidence that Reija was with the real ticket owner at the time of verification. The defendant maintains that was not the case and could not explain the coincidences.
Four requests for payout
Despite his claims that he did not intend to collect the money, Reija contacted Selae four times requesting the prize payment. He explained his first request as an attempt to prevent the payout period from expiring if the ticket owner did not come forward. As for the other three requests, he said they were related to trying to understand the ‘expediente de hallazgo’ procedure — a public search for the owner. He claims he did not know how to act correctly and does not remember the details of these letters.
The role of the family and details of the investigation
After finding the ticket, Reija turned to his brother Miguel, who at the time headed the local branch of Selae, and to his sister Belén, who also worked in the lottery system. He informed them about the discovery and returned to his workplace to wait for the owner to appear. According to him, no one ever came to claim the ticket. During the hearings, Reija appeared nervous, often struggled to answer questions, and could not recall when he learned the size of the winnings. He emphasized that he did not use his brother’s position to obtain the money and that there were no clear instructions for such cases.
Context and reaction
The court case sparked widespread public attention in Galicia, where such stories of large lottery wins and their disappearance are extremely rare. Questions about the transparency of lottery outlets and procedures for tracing ticket owners remain relevant. Similar incidents involving unexpected discoveries and disputes over large sums have occurred in other regions of Spain—for example, in the case of the accident in Alcalá de Henares, where local residents faced the consequences of infrastructure failures, which was examined in detail in the coverage of the restoration of water supply.
