Md. man claims $250K prize 1 day before deadline

Dec 28, 2009, 9:54 am (4 comments)

Mega Millions

BALTIMORE — An Elkton, Maryland, man claimed a $250,000 Mega Millions prize — with one day left before he missed the deadline.

The 52-year-old man, whose name wasn't released by Maryland Lottery officials last week, was preparing to pay his truck insurance Dec. 18 when he happened upon the ticket that was bought in June.

"It's up for renewal every six months," the winner said of his insurance. "I was putting the insurance papers in my console, and that's when I saw the Mega Millions ticket."

After finding his ticket, he remembered an article he saw about a big prize that hadn't been claimed, but he just shrugged it off. "I figured it had been claimed by now," he said.

The winner confirmed the $250,000 win by checking the Maryland Lottery website and calling the lottery claims center to find out if he calculated the 182-day claiming period correctly.

"When I realized I won, I was speechless," he told lottery officials. "Then, the biggest smile came across my face."

With his winnings, he said he plans to donate to a charity, help family, invest and take a vacation.

The winning ticket was purchased June 23 at a Royal Farms convenience store in Elkton.

WBAL

Comments

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Another example of why so many jackpots go unclaimed. You have to wonder why people buy tickets and then don't check them. Or maybe it's people with bad memories or something. My guess would be that it's people who don't play on a regular basis so it's not naturally high on their list of things to do. Then they forget about it.

I'm glad to see he got it though.

dphillips's avatardphillips

Yes, the winner should have checked the ticket earlier. However, at least the ticket was claimed -- one hour before the deadline: that's really cutting it close!

One day, we might read about a winner claiming a ticket one hour before the deadline -- now, that would be dinner conversation.

sully16's avatarsully16

thats got me thinking... maybe i should turn my coupon organizer into a lottery ticket organizer. if some one markets that remember my cut.

JONNIE

What are the odds? The ones that dont check their tickets end up winning, while the ones that check the numbers constantly almost never seem to win....

End of comments
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