N.M. man had jackpot-winning lottery ticket in car for 2 months

Jul 22, 2014, 11:02 am (20 comments)

New Mexico Lottery

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For almost two months, Dennis Romero of Albuquerque, New Mexico, drove around town with a lottery ticket worth $385,000 in the backseat of his car. 

On Friday afternoon, Romero discovered his good fortune.  Realizing he had unchecked tickets from May, he pulled into a store parking lot, grabbed the tickets and scanned them himself using a countertop ticket checker.

"When it said, 'Claim at lottery,' I knew I had won something big," Romero said.

On his quick-pick ticket for the May 29 Roadrunner Cash drawing, Romero matched the winning numbers of 4, 10 12, 31 and 32 to land the night's jackpot of $385,000.  His ticket included two other plays that paid $1 each. 

"From now on, I'm going to check my tickets more often," Romero told lottery officials in Albuquerque yesterday.

New Mexico Lottery tickets expire 90 days after the date of the drawing.

Romero said he's going to use his six-figure prize to pay bills and get ready for retirement.

The winner bought his lucky ticket at the 7-Eleven store located at 401 Copper Ave. NW in Albuquerque.  Previously, the store has sold eight other large prize-winning lottery tickets paying between $1,000 and $5,000.  For selling the jackpot-winning ticket, the store is eligible for a $1,000 lottery bonus.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

HaveABall's avatarHaveABall

Congratulations, Dennis Romero, on your tidy lottery jackpot win! Banana

Nikkicute's avatarNikkicute

Another one with a winning ticket he didn't realise he had.

This seems to happen a lot!

Congrats thoughApprove

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

At least he found the ticket before it expired.

noise-gate

What Dennis is saying is..

Check your lottery tickets on a regular basis & Don't wait for Months to go by before looking in on the backseat of your vehicle which can become a garbage dumpster if one has bad habits. 

Nice catch Dennis & congratulations. 

Get paid's avatarGet paid

Mr. Romero ur very lucky,almost lost out on 300,grand. Congrats anyway.

whiteballz's avatarwhiteballz

i check my tickets on a regular basis and I take good take of them. A lot of good it does me.

mypiemaster's avatarmypiemaster

You didn't clean your car for 2 months? Eeeek, Scared there might be roaches back there. Congrats on your win.

Nikkicute's avatarNikkicute

Quote: Originally posted by whiteballz on Jul 22, 2014

i check my tickets on a regular basis and I take good take of them. A lot of good it does me.

I think your doing wrong whiteballz, you've got to buy tickets and then toss them somewhere!

OK, wait a while then check them to see if you win. lol hey, it just might work.

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

Nice catch Mr Romero.

pickone4me's avatarpickone4me

Is that really all it takes to win?  Buy a few lottery tickets and stuff them in between the couch/chair cushions, or under your car seat, or ashtray, etc.  Why don't we all try that,  we will all be rich.  LOLCrazyStooges

HaveABall's avatarHaveABall

Quote: Originally posted by pickone4me on Jul 22, 2014

Is that really all it takes to win?  Buy a few lottery tickets and stuff them in between the couch/chair cushions, or under your car seat, or ashtray, etc.  Why don't we all try that,  we will all be rich.  LOLCrazyStooges

pickone4me, I have tried irresponsible and disrespectful lottery ticket placements; due to becoming inspired by several bigger lottery jackpot winners' stories on this website.  It didn't net me a BIG NET jackpot win yet.  It is coming to me, soon, though.  Cheers!

White BounceSun Smiley

helpmewin's avatarhelpmewin

Congratulations Mr.Dennis Romero Spend Wisely Party

whiteballz's avatarwhiteballz

Quote: Originally posted by Nikkicute on Jul 22, 2014

I think your doing wrong whiteballz, you've got to buy tickets and then toss them somewhere!

OK, wait a while then check them to see if you win. lol hey, it just might work.

okay, I left my tickets in my car and I took a vow of poverty last week. So, I should win the jackpot and become a millionaire.

sully16's avatarsully16

Congrats Dennis, glad you found your ticket.

Subscribe to this news story