Black Man has a $1 Million Lottery ticket Stolen...Then Recovered - Whew!!!

Willis Willis will finally get some of his $1 million lottery jackpot. On Tuesday, state District Judge Bob Perkins signed an order restoring to the Grand Prairie man $395,000 seized from the bank account of a store clerk accused of stealing the winning ticket.

"I feel pretty good, a bit relieved," said Willis, 67, shortly after the hearing in Austin. "I'm glad we finally made it to this point."

Willis said he planned to spend part of the money on medical bills and a daughter's college tuition.

"It's all stuff that has to be paid for," he said. "Things I really needed the money to take care of."

About $365,000 of the cash restored to Willis was seized by Travis County prosecutors from bank accounts opened by the store clerk, Pankaj Joshi. The other $30,000 was recovered from people in Dallas to whom Joshi had given money.

Authorities believe Joshi took the ticket from Willis, told him it was not a winner and cashed the ticket himself. He then returned to his native Nepal.