Man claims Powerball lottery prize just before it was due to expire

Apr 8, 2006, 10:21 am (16 comments)

Powerball

With only two hours left, Jose Luis Martinez of Roswell walked into New Mexico Lottery headquarters and claimed a $200,000 Powerball prize that was about to expire.

Martinez told lottery officials that he had carried the ticket in his wallet the entire 90 days, but never got around to checking it.

The deadline, 90 days from the date of the January 7, 2006, drawing, would have been April 7, at 4:30 pm, when the Lottery's claim center closed for the weekend.

Two days ago, Martinez and his wife, Armida Lozano, first heard the news on a Roswell television station announcing a $200,000 Powerball ticket sold in Roswell would soon expire. Lozano then checked the tickets she also had.

Friday morning the couple had a flat tire while taking their daughter to school. A friend took them to have the tire fixed. Coincidently, their friend had a copy of Friday's Roswell Daily Record newspaper and a story that a $200,000 Powerball ticket would expire that afternoon.

While waiting for the flat repair, Martinez decided to check the tickets he had in his wallet against the winning numbers printed in the newspaper article.

"Those are my numbers," Martinez told his wife.

"At first I thought it wasn't true," said Lozano. "But then I did after I saw his ticket and the numbers in the paper."

The couple had the ticket checked at a Roswell store that confirmed it was the missing $200,000 ticket.

The ticket had five sets of hand-picked numbers. It was the second set that matched the white ball numbers drawn January 7. Those numbers were: 2-16-21-32-43. Martinez said he always plays with hand-picked numbers. His winning set of numbers represented special personal dates.

The only winning number Martinez lacked was the red Powerball of 6. His ticket had 23, missing that night's jackpot of $56.4 million dollars.

Martinez bought his Powerball ticket at Allsup's Convenience Store #268, 520 E. 2nd Street in Roswell. The same store previously sold a $5,000 Powerball third prize, as well as 10 large winning Scratchers worth $1,000 to $2,100. As part of the Lottery's retailer incentive program, Allsup's #268 is eligible to receive a $2,500 bonus for selling a $200,000 winning Powerball ticket.

The couple said they'll keep playing, and working, until they hit the millions.

"And we'll be checking our tickets sooner," Lozano added.

Martinez works for Queso Grande Dairy in Roswell, and Lozano is a stay at home mother.

The couple said they plan to buy a home with their winnings and save the rest.

The largest lottery prize claimed by a Roswell resident was $500,000, when Dutch and Janice Ensconatus won the "$500,000 Extravaganza" top prize last July. The largest Powerball second prize claimed in New Mexico was $800,000, won last month by Ignacio Lopez of Santa Fe.

Since 1996 when the New Mexico began playing Powerball, the State has had 180 winners of the second prize; 161 players won $100,000 to $400,000, and an additional 19 players won $200,000 to $800,000 after the prize doubled in September 2005. New Mexico has also had three Powerball jackpot-winning tickets, making 16 people millionaires. In November 2000, 14 Sandia National Laboratory security guards split a $131 million jackpot. In February 2002, a Las Cruces municipal employee won a $32 million jackpot. And in August 2005, a master sergeant at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque won a $93.4 million jackpot. All of the jackpot winners chose the lump-sum cash option.

New Mexico is one of 30 lotteries that participate in the Powerball game.

Based on sales through February and a corresponding fund transfer in late March, the New Mexico Lottery has raised more than $274 million for New Mexico education since the Lottery began in April 1996. Of that, almost $208 million has been earmarked for the popular Lottery Success Scholarship program, which had provided in-state tuition for more than 38,000 college students. Another $66.5 million had previously been used for school construction and repairs.

Lottery Post Staff

Tags for this story

Other popular tags

Comments

Uff Da!'s avatarUff Da!

Justxploring will, no doubt, be very happy to read that this winner managed to claim his money in time.  Big Grin

DoubleDown

Martinez told lottery officials that he had carried the ticket in his wallet the entire 90 days, but never got around to checking it.

I'm sorry, but what a dam idiot ! He doesn't deserve the money for carrying the ticket around for 90 days without checking it .

Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the State didn't get it back, but what are people thinking when they buy tickets and never check them ?

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

Justxploring will, no doubt, be very happy to read that this winner managed to claim his money in time.  Big Grin

Thanks for thinking of me!  I don't know why it bothers me so much when I read those articles & see money go unclaimed. It's not as if the money would go into my bank account. I guess it's like seeing all the food they throw away at the end of the day at the supermarket or all those cars they use for crash testing when I need a new one! LOL

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

Martinez told lottery officials that he had carried the ticket in his wallet the entire 90 days, but never got around to checking it.

I'm sorry, but what a dam idiot ! He doesn't deserve the money for carrying the ticket around for 90 days without checking it .

Don't get me wrong - I'm glad the State didn't get it back, but what are people thinking when they buy tickets and never check them ?

Okay, now I'm self-conscious about posting. There's another thread today about people who edit or post too often.  Oy! Tell the walls to stop staring at me!!

Anyway, I agree with you DD. It's really crazy that people buy tickets and don't claim them. This man could have won over $50M had he picked the correct PB number and then imagine what he would have lost! The other thing I can't understand is carrying around a PB ticket in your wallet.

Uff Da!'s avatarUff Da!

LOL!  I carry my tickets around in my purse all the time.  And until I found this forum five weeks ago, I often let my tickets go unchecked for weeks at a time.  I only played lottery occasionally, and it just wasn't high enough priority to worry about it.  The chance of winning anything big were just too remote to think of the ticket as worth a large amount of money. 

And yes, there were a few times I let some tickets go unchecked for over six months, so they would have been no good if they'd been a winner.  Usually I do check them after a jackpot winner is announced, but if I recognize enough numbers to know I didn't get the jackpot, I don't necessarily bother to check the remaining numbers right away.  But there were occasional times, due to family illness or some other priority, that I might not have even paid enough attention to know that I didn't have a jackpot winner.  I think it is a matter of just how big the lottery is in your life. 

Sometimes, too, my tickets get buried in the piles of paper on my desk. Some of you have seen desks like this.  Big Grin

I'm glad this winner did make it in time.  That was one really close call! 

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

Uff Da, I hope you didn't take offense to any of the above comments.  We're all pals here. But a lottery ticket might be worth a fortune, so it's best to treat them all as potential winners and put them in a safe place. Think of how you'd feel if you came across an old ticket that turned out to be a winner. It is just a game, but it's a game that can change your life.

"But there were occasional times, due to family illness or some other priority, that I might not have even paid enough attention to know that I didn't have a jackpot winner.  I think it is a matter of just how big the lottery is in your life."

I disagree. Why buy them at all? Would you buy an airline ticket and not check the flight after you got it? I don't think the lottery has to consume a person for her to check her tickets. I'm the last one to comment on one's lifestyle (I bet my desk is messier than yours..and forget my bedroom!) but even during a big family crisis and when my shutters and dozens of shingles were blown off my roof last year, I still spent the 30 seconds it takes to look up the lottery numbers. Actually, if someone has so many things going on that the lottery is not a priority, or is consumed by problems such as family illness, why would stopping to buy a lottery ticket in the first place take any less time than looking up the numbers? Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a debate. I totally agree that the chances of winning are remote, but they go from slim to none if you don't bother to check them. 

Uff Da!'s avatarUff Da!

justxploring - Heavens, no, I didn't take offense.  I just wanted to point out that people have different perspectives about the place of lottery in their life, which may well account for how quickly they may check their tickets.

For example, I've never (well, almost never) gone into a store specifically to buy a lottery ticket, even if I was otherwise just driving by.  Instead I might go to a grocery store or gas station for food or gas and just happen to see that the jackpot was high, so bought a few tickets.  I'd guess a lot of people are like that.  Then when I'd get home and had to face the 24/7 caregiving role again, lottery tickets were the furthest thing from my mind.  It is not that I didn't intend to check the tickets.  It is just when they play such a small part in one's life with so little else to trigger the memory, that it is very easy to forget.  (Maybe in 20 or 30 years you will begin to understand this memory problem better!) Big Grin

Of course, now that I've started checking this website every day, there is that regular reminder, and I tend to check my tickets the night of or morning after the drawing.  But I'd guess that it is people like I was formerly, who buy tickets only occasionally, who are most apt to forget they even have the tickets or forget to check them.

 

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

(Maybe in 20 or 30 years you will begin to understand this memory problem better!) Big Grin

 

I don't have to wait!  I can't tell you how many times I've lost my car this year. Thank goodness for those remote alarms. Now, if there's anyone who can figure out how to put a remote on a pair of glasses so I don't go crazy trying to find them, I'd appreciate it.

 

dvdiva's avatardvdiva

Most tickets should be claimed in 60 days or you will be forced to have an annuity you may not want in many states.

atl1

It agree with justxploring. I don’t see how people can forget to check their ticket; you buy them for a reason. Even if the lotto is at the bottom of their list there is still no reason. I forget stuff too like: I rarely dry clean but sometimes I  need to remove a spot or something from pants. I have other pants so those pants are not that important, if I get busy I’m going to forget to pick them up for a few days. If it takes 90 days and a newspaper article saying “Customer left pants at dry cleaners for 90, two days before they gave it away” to realize hey I need to pick up my pants something ain’t right

TheGameGrl's avatarTheGameGrl

There are some habits that are less endearing then others. We each carry them.

I was pleased to read that the fell'r claimed it in time! He stayed within the regulations of claim time and is now able to enjoy the good fortune.

It would boggle my mind if I had to sit and list the every day annoyances that go on in life. Such as: Why car companies place turn signals on cars when folks rarely use them. The gist is, there are things or habits that are life saving or hindering and depending on ones perspective , it makes all the difference.

Congrats to the man who claimed a winning ticket! :)

SassyOhio's avatarSassyOhio

Congrats on your winnings!! But I have to agree with justexploring. I just think that sometimes people play the lotto on a wind and some are hard core players ( like me lol) And the funny part is if you research the lotto winners through out time you will most likely find that the people that win the most is the ones that just decided to stop in and get them a couple auto lottos just because the whole town is talking about that BIG JACKPOT!!  The  you do have others like myself that are setting there in front of that Tv and get the numbers as they are picked and are check before 11:10 and KNOW if were a winner or not lol, I myself do have a routine of where I buy my tickets and on what day and what time I go LMAO. I think that if someone is gonna play then yeah they need to check there tickets, IT DRIVES US CRAZY WAITING TO HEAR IT WAS CLAIMED LOL. Just like the Lyons winner here in Ohio. DROVE US CRAZY took them forever to claim that HUGE jackpot, Now I understand  they prolly needed to breath a little  I mean HELLO  ALL THAT MONEY. But NOT ME I am a trooper LOL I would be in my car THAT NIGHT on my way to CLEVELAND!!! And getting my claim on my future started NOW lolHyper

CASH Only

I don't think he would have waited so long if the prize changes to an annuity before the 90 days were up. Florida Lotto winners have only 60 days from the DRAWING to claim, otherwise they won't get a lump sum.

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

i wonder why people wait until the last minute to claim prizes.....

Subscribe to this news story
Guest