Mother urged winner to check tickets, having heard news of upcoming expiration
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — William H. Greer of Philadelphia is the winner of a $200,000 Powerball prize that was set to expire at 4:30 p.m. today.
At Choi's Food and Beer, 3987 Ford Rd, in the Wynnefield section of the city, they knew the ticket sold there that matched all five "white" numbers (but not the red Powerball number) from last year's June 18th drawing was still out there somewhere.
"My mother saw the news about the unclaimed ticket set to expire, knew the store that sold the ticket is where I play and told me to check my old tickets," said Greer. "The first couple of tickets I checked were not winners, but the last one matched the numbers my mother gave me. I started shaking when I checked the numbers against the Lottery's Web site."
Store manager Sue Choi said she got a surprise when a guy walked in and claimed he had the ticket and was sent by his mother to verify the numbers.
"He just told me. He did not show me any ticket. He said he was just going to Harrisburg."
Actually, Greer went to the Philadelphia lottery office, where his claim was preliminarily verified by lottery officials, who examined the ticket and executed proprietary security measures to ensure the ticket was valid.
Greer's ticket correctly matched all five white balls, 09-12-31-39-52, for a $200,000 prize, less 25 percent federal withholding.
Choi Food & Beer will receive a $500 bonus for selling the winning ticket.
Greer declined participating in a check presentation or public event recognizing his win.
There is one Powerball grand prize still waiting to be claimed in Pennsylvania — half of a $174 million annuity. That ticket was sold last February at the Plymouth Meeting Mall. So you've got about eight months left if you're the lucky holder of that ticket.
Choi's Food and Beer, 3987 Ford Rd, in the Wynnefield section of Philadelphia, where a $200,000 winning Powerball lottery ticket was sold one year ago — and just claimed today before it expired.
How can someone have a winning lottery ticket for a year and not know it?
How can someone find the winning ticket they've had for over a year they didn't know about?
He is lucky that his mom reminded him to check his old tickets. Otherwise he would be out $200,000.
He might have just enjoyed quietly hanging on to his winning ticket while watching others who bought tickets at the same place worry that they bought it and lost it. It's hard to believe he bought and saved lottery tickets for a year never checking to see if he won anything and then on the day the ticket was to expire checked and found the year old winning ticket near the top of the pile.
THAT is one place I stopped playing because they don't have the right attitude towards their customers. Use to be a nice place until they sold it to new owners. It seems like a ''bother'' to them to work the lottery machine. I know a few people that still go there, but not me.
I have a box - okay a BIG box that I throw all my tickets in once I check them, never know if you need them or not. Anyway, expensive wall paper or do some craft work with? Yes, the box has tickets well over a year, I'm a pack rat???
I started playing there when I worked at the hospital down the street, no, I wasn't a nurse, I was the carpenter rebuilding. Some of my funniest stuff I did at that hospital, yeah, I'm the joker in the bunch!
Still a mystery to me why hospitals and universities always on a building craze?
WOW!!! I throw all of my tickets away after checking them. Never occurred to me to keep them all. Maybe I should start doing that....what do ya'll think?
I would think that Hospitals and Universities get state and federal money to expand...................Oh well.............congrats to the guy and to his mom ......him for keeping the ticket and her for reminding him.....It's what mothers do Best!!!!!!!!!!!.......beaudad.........
Just goes to show you that you should always listen to your Mother!
Some of these storie's are somtime hard to believe??..
I also have tickets a year old. Sometimes with work, school and church time goes by fast so it may be a couple of months before i get to check them.
i still hold on for a year in case there's some scandal about machine malfunction and the incorrect numbers were given as winners.
long shot i know, but i;m laughing at myself also.
Yup, I fill shoe boxes up each year in case I need 'losing' tickets for tax purposes..
I, too, have some old tickets I haven't checked yet. And considering that NC claims are less than a year, I really need to check them more often.
Usually they are ones from when we are traveling and my hubby buys one (which is unusual) and then it ends up mixed in the receipt drawer (which he hasn't cleared in months).