On Saturday, January 10, 2009, in Anchorage, Alaska, a convicted sex offender came forward to claim a $500,000 jackpot.  Okay, that’s not bad, right?  But, here’s the “things that make you go hmmmm” part:  The jackpot was the result of an Alaska lottery, called Lucky Time Pull Tabs, that donates its proceeds to a nonprofit group, Standing Together Against Rape, which, among other services, offers support to sexual assault victims!  It seems that the convicted sex offender is a two-time offender as he was convicted in 1993 and 2000 for sexual abuse of a minor!

According to Nancy Haag, the nonprofit’s executive director, “It’s not how we had envisioned the story going.”  Uh, Nancy, that is the understatement of the year (so far anyway).  According to FBI statistics, Alaska has the highest per capita number of rape cases in the United States.  Haag further stated, “With a ranking that high, it’s ironic that the person who wins is a convicted sex offender.”

Efforts to reach lottery organizer Abe Spicola, who owns Lucky Times Pull Tabs, were unsuccessful late Monday. But Spicola told the Anchorage Daily News that the winner “was going to buy a house and said he was going to donate part of it to God, and, you know, charity.”

Talk about irony, right?