When Bob Monk heard that the state Liquor Control Board was holding a lottery that offered him a chance to buy a bottle of Van Winkle bourbon, he thought, "Why not?"

So he threw in his lot to grab a bottle of Van Winkle Special Reserve 12-year, 90.4 proof bourbon. If he won, he would be able to buy the bottle for $59.99 plus tax.

Nancy Eshelman

What he didn't know then was just how expensive that bottle of bourbon would turn out to be.

For those of you who, like me, don't know much (or in my case, anything) about bourbon, here's some background from Wikipedia: Van Winkle bourbons are made primarily from corn and aged in charred new oak barrels. What distinguishes them is using wheat as the secondary ingredient instead of rye, and their additional inclusion of barley malt.

Pappy Van Winkle is aged for 12, 15, 20 or 23 years, which is considerably longer than the aging period for most bourbons.

Apparently, Van Winkle could sell a lot more than it makes. That's why the LCB decided to sell the brand by lottery late last year. The "winners" could buy themselves a nice Christmas present not readily available to just anyone.

The top item was just 18 bottles of 23-year Pappy Van Winkle available for retail customers at $249.99 each.

Lo and behold, Bob, 39, of Dauphin found himself to be one of 585 retail customers able to buy his very own bottle of the lower-priced special reserve. He was pretty pumped.

After he had his prize, he started doing some investigating. He wanted to know all he could about this special bourbon. That's when he discovered that people were selling it online for anywhere from $350 to $600.

Did this daddy, who works two jobs, really want to drink something worth that much money? He knew it would taste good. But $500 good? He wasn't convinced.

So he decided to follow the American way. He had something that people wanted, so why not sell it to one of them?

He advertised his bottle on Craigslist. His ad said he would only sell in person to someone who was over 21.

On the last day of 2015, a fellow contacted him and said he would like to buy the bourbon. It would, he said, be a nice addition to a New Year's Eve party he was going to attend.

Bob met the guy at a convenience store on Progress Avenue. He handed over the bottle, and the guy handed him an envelope. They started to part ways.

Then the buyer asked Bob why he hadn't looked inside the envelope. Bob said he was a trusting kind of guy. But the buyer insisted. That's when Bob discovered the envelope contained a few one dollar bills.

That's also when the buyer pulled his badge. That's when Bob had to follow him to the police station to be formally charged.

Bob says he read all the lottery rules and couldn't find anything that said it would be illegal to sell his booze. I read them too, and frankly, I didn't see anything either.

But, this being Pennsylvania, it's apparently illegal for anyone to sell liquor without a license. Even one bottle.

Bob said he can't see the difference between selling that bottle and selling a baseball card or a sought-after stamp.

Pennsylvania sees a difference.

Now Bob faces a preliminary hearing next month. He's paid $1,400 to have an attorney accompany him. If he loses, he faces a $1,200 fine, a misdemeanor on his record and the possibility of probation, with $600 in fees.

No bourbon, no proceeds and a big hole in his checking account. Bob may have won the lottery, but the aftermath has been one giant lose/lose.

NANCY ESHELMAN: columnist1@verizon.net