This rare situation is causing French judicial experts in France to scratch their heads in determining who is the legal owner of the 500,000 euro prize, the person who bought the lottery ticket or the person who paid, according to The Guardian on February 21.

PHOTO: LE PARISIEN SCREENSHOT

The incident, which Le Parisien newspaper said was worthy of being made into a film, began when two homeless men opened the door of a car in central Toulouse on February 3 and stole a backpack containing several credit cards and personal documents from Mr. Jean-David (42 years old).

The victim reported the matter to the police and contacted the bank to block the credit card. However, the two thieves used the credit card to buy 52.50 euros worth of items at a newsagent near where the car was parked.

The next morning, Mr. Jean-David went to the newsstand to explain the incident and asked to check the security cameras. The owner of the newsstand said he did not see anything on the cameras but remembered two homeless people in their 30s and 40s coming to buy cigarettes and scratch-off lottery tickets. "He found their behavior suspicious because they paid for the lottery tickets with one card but bought things with another card and could not enter the password," Mr. Jean-David told the police.

After scratching off the numbers, the two thieves who won the top prize of 500,000 euros (13.3 billion VND) came forward to claim their prize. The newsstand owner asked them to contact the lottery company Francaise des Jeux to claim their prize. The newsstand owner's wife said the two thieves were so happy that they forgot to take the five packs of cigarettes they had bought.

The two thieves have not yet been contacted to claim the money while police have asked the lottery company to freeze the prize pending an investigation.

Now, Mr. Jean-David is calling on the two thieves to come forward and share the reward. "Why not find an amicable solution? Why not share it?", the victim of the theft said.

Jean-David's lawyer Pierre Debuisson said Francaise des Jeux should pay the prize because it sold the ticket. "The owners don't have to worry. Our proposal is very simple. Without my client's money, they wouldn't have won, without them, my client wouldn't have won. It's only fair to share it," Debuisson said.