Woman claims $500K prize but lottery says it should be $500

CLEVELAND -- An Ohio woman claims to have won $500,000 on an Ohio Lottery scratch-off ticket, while the lottery says she won only the $500 she received.

Penelope Demetriades filed a claim against the lottery Monday in Ohio's Court of Claims. The Northfield woman says she bought a ticket in September at a convenience store in Macedonia, about 24 miles southeast of Cleveland. She says a store employee said she won $500 and gave her that prize.

Demetriades says she later determined she won $500,000, but employees wouldn't honor her ticket, saying it was destroyed or thrown out.

She alleges breach of contract, among other things, and is seeking compensatory damages and a judgment that she won $500,000.

The lottery says investigators reconstructed the ticket, and it was a $500 winner.