Man, 70, finds S$10,000 prize-winning 4D ticket on S'pore bus, passes it to police & looks for owner

A 70-year-old man in Singapore was alighting from bus service 925 on Dec. 31, 2024, when he saw several 4D lottery tickets on a seat in the bus.

He realised that one of them was purchased on Dec. 29, and its numbers — "6777" — had won the first prize on the same day, reported Shin Min Daily News.

The S$5 "Big" bet won S$10,000.

The man then handed the lottery ticket over to the police on Jan. 1, 2025.

He publicised his story to Shin Min in hopes of finding the rightful owner.

Lodged police reports at Toa Payoh & Yew Tee

Speaking to Shin Min, the man, surnamed Wu (transliteration), said he found a total of three lottery tickets right before alighting from the bus at Marsiling MRT station at around 5pm on Dec. 31.

As he had also purchased 4D lottery tickets previously, he "paid close attention to winning numbers", shared Wu.

"That's why I remembered the first prize-winning numbers for [the draw on Dec. 31, 2024] and realised one of the lottery tickets had won," he recounted.

However, as many people were getting off the bus at the time, Wu said he could not pinpoint who exactly sat on the seat where he found the lottery tickets.

As such, he took the tickets with him before bringing them to a police station in Toa Payoh, where he lodged a police report the next day.

Fearing that the owner might live in Marsiling, Wu also lodged a police report at a police station in Yew Tee on Jan. 3, 2025.

Won 1st prize in 2021

According to Wu, the owner of the lottery tickets is able to identify themselves and retrieve them from the police by naming the exact numbers on the other two lottery tickets, reported Shin Min.

The other two tickets were purchased on Dec. 26 and 28, 2024, and bore different numbers.

Wu shared that he wanted to search for the owner because, as a pundit himself, he understood how difficult it was to win the first prize.

"I had purchased lottery tickets for years and rarely won anything. Even when I won, I mostly received the starter or consolation prizes," he recounted.

It was not until 2021 that fortune finally favoured Wu, allowing him to win the first prize of S$20,000.

Appropriating lottery ticket makes Wu 'restless & uneasy'

Wu also told Shin Min that this was the first time he had ever found a winning lottery ticket.

When asked why he had never considered keeping the winning lottery ticket, Wu shared that it did not belong to him and he would feel uneasy if he were to claim the prize money.

"I would rather give it back to the owner than to live a restless and uneasy life," added Wu.

Online users doubted Wu’s story

However, some online users questioned Wu’s account and even suspected the winning lottery ticket had been doctored.

According to an eagle-eyed Facebook user, the last digit of the winning number “6777” appeared to have a piece of paper printed with the number “7” pasted over it.

At around midnight on Jan. 6, the Shin Min report on its website appeared inaccessible.

Man withdrew police reports

On Jan. 6, Shin Min reported that Wu had been informed about the lottery ticket being possibly doctored.

In response, Wu shared that he was "shocked" to hear this news.

He added that when he found the ticket, "he and his friend did not look at it closely", and they could not imagine why someone would do such a thing.

"I had gone to the police stations to withdraw my police reports. I am also thinking of lodging a police report regarding the doctored ticket," said Wu.

He shared that he would be more careful moving forward and remind the public to do the same should they come across a seemingly winning lottery ticket.

Top images via Shin Min Daily News