A Sterling, Virginia, man redeemed his $1 million Virginia lottery ticket four days before the prize money was set to expire.
Virginia lottery officials said Aaron Monsey, who works as a carpenter, bought the winning ticket nearly six months ago at Sterling Park Exxon (formerly Getty Mart) at 209 East Holly Avenue in Sterling. He returned to the gas station Dec. 15 to receive his check from the Virginia Lottery.
Monsey used Easy Pick, allowing a computer to randomly generate the numbers on his ticket. Had he matched all six numbers, Monsey would have won an estimated $60 million jackpot.
Monsey's ticket matched the first five numbers of the June 21 Powerball drawing. He discovered the next day he had purchased the winning ticket.
"There wasn't any yelling or screaming," he told Virginia lottery officials, according to a press release.
By law, Virginia lottery tickets expire 180 days after each drawing. Monsey's ticket was set to expire Thursday.
When asked why he waited so long to redeem his prize, Monsey told lottery officials, "Just because..."
The Sterling Park Exxon received a check for $10,000 for selling the winning ticket.
Powerball drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays. Results are published minutes after each drawing at Lottery Post (www.lotterypost.com/results) and at USA Mega (www.usamega.com), a Web site devoted to the Powerball and Mega Millions multi-state games.
A true degenerate gambler, waiting unnecessarily near the deadline to claim. Instead of sitting that money could have been working for him instead.
Congratulation Aaron.
Congratulations to Aaron Monsey ! a cool million. I believe in waiting but for almost six months ?
A Quick Pick "Easy Pick" does it again. To each his own or her own. Would Mr.Monsey have waited this long if he had scored the Jackpot ? LOL
That winner sure was slow ^
There is a down side to waiting until the last minute,something unfortunate can happened to the ticket holder.
Well at least he cashed it before it expired. Congrats to Monsey on his win!
One man's{woman's} meat, is another man's{woman's} poison. Just a matter of choice. His ticket, his money, his decision to make. Congrats. for winning something is in order.
No screaming or jumping....probably because he wished the last ball matches too! Someone who waited so long til almost last minute is somewhat weird thinking. But congrats overalll for a good fortune hit!
If he cashed it in during the first few weeks he'd be getting little or no attention,
many times the stories just mention that there were several "other winners of 1 MIL.
and no one pays them any mind.
Maybe he wanted the attention.
As for myself I couldn't wait to get paid and I'd be worried about something happening to the ticket in the meantime.
...
Unfortunate things happens to winners who cash their tickets right away too. I remember reading about woman in Indiana who was hit and killed by a car shortly after cashing her ticket and returning home from a bar where she had been celebrating with her friends.
Rich people say the same thing to each other too.
So true