INDIANAPOLIS — Eric White didn't realize he'd left $2.5 million sitting on the desk in the office in his Indianapolis home for six months.
On Friday, he and his wife, Lori, cashed in, beating the odds by turning in the winning Hoosier Lotto ticket from the Aug. 19 drawing a week after the lottery officials said the prize wouldn't be awarded because the 180-day deadline had passed. Officials extended the deadline to Feb. 22 after saying the date had been miscalculated.
Lori White, 38, said she sent her husband a text Tuesday night asking if he had any old lottery tickets after seeing a story about the unclaimed fortune on television. But it took another two days before he got around to looking. He found the winning ticket along with others Thursday night in his home office.
"They were in a pile of books on the desk," said 39-year-old Eric White.
"I have no idea how they did not get thrown away," said Lori.
She said she tried calling the lottery office during the night, but it was closed. Friday morning, the couple consulted a financial adviser and went to the lottery's downtown office to verify they had the winning ticket, bearing numbers 4-5-17-30-38-43.
"I think I pinched myself when I woke up," Lori White said.
Hoosier Lottery spokeswoman Lucia Anderson said no Indiana winner has ever stepped forward so late to claim a large prize.
The couple received a check for about $697,000 after taxes after choosing the cash option, Anderson said. The Hoosier Lottery withholds some state and federal taxes, but winners may have to pay additional taxes depending on their income level, she said.
The Whites said their first priority for the money is to pay for college for their two children, ages 3 and 6, and donate to their church. Beyond that, they said they'd have to think it over. Neither Eric nor Lori thought they would quit their jobs — he as a manager with a security company, she as a Marion County probation officer.
"Right now it's just being responsible with it, not being crazy," Eric White said.
He bought the winning ticket at a Meijer convenience store on the south side of Indianapolis where he said he occasionally gets tickets while buying gas. The store will receive $25,000 for selling the winning ticket, Anderson said.
Last week, the store saw an influx of lottery players who had dug old tickets out of the trash or scoured through their cars and desk drawers hoping to find the elusive winner.
If the Whites hadn't come forward, it wouldn't have been the largest unclaimed prize. Hoosier Lottery spokesman Andrew Reed said a $5 million Hoosier Lotto jackpot went unclaimed in March 2004, and no winner stepped forward in September 2002 to claim their $50 million Powerball jackpot. In 2007, a $19 million New Jersey Lottery prize wasn't claimed. Florida's largest unclaimed payout was a $50 million Lotto ticket sold in 2003, and no one produced a winning $7 million Lotto Texas ticket last year.
The Whites did have some immediate plans for their new money.
"There's a nice dinner in our future," Eric White said. "Then we're just going to relax."
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Thanks to pumpi76 for the tip.
i'M happy expiration date was extended and they found ticket in time. This could have been me. I'm so bad about checking my Tickets. They must hav had high income or some back taXES OR SOMETHING FOR THE AMT TO BE $ 697,000 AFTER TAXES. i Realize that the advertised amount is the annuitized amout.
Oh well< I'd take that (smile)
If the date had expired, I wouldn't want to know if I had the winning ticket and noone had better tell me I had winning ticket. (LOL)!
Story is to hard to believe..If you play the lottery you check your tickets..To me the story sounds fishy..Glad they won..
Everyone doesn't focus on the lottery..they buy out of habit and just throw them everywhere..I used buy mine and put them in a cigar box..I never had the big one but a friend of mine needed money so I gave them the box to look through and they found a lot of 3 digit winners..so u see it can happen.
That's probably the same way all the other JP's go unclaimed.
They throw the ticket somewhere and forget about it. It's amazing that someone in Florida lost 50 million dollars and doesn't even know it.
so glad the state lotto does not get to be the winner of their own jackpot prize, good for him finding it
i love how if a jackpot prize goes unclaimed, the state won their own lotto jackpot! as they just keep it for them selfs
i think the money
should be put back into the jackpot game next roll over, players builded that thing , they deserve a winner
it be like me or you buying a lotto ticket for the jackpot, only to find out the STATE WON THEIR own jackpot
just saying sense i dont want some record pb or mm jackpot to go unclaimed way in the future and no one wins it, but all the states win it thro!
Good thing his wife had the sense to have her husband re-check his tickets.
Otherwise, they would have been out a good deal of money.
Presuming the Whites had no back taxes or any judgement liens, it would mean that the Hoosier Lotto cash amount is apx. 61.5% less than the advertized full annutized amount (whoa!). Further, if this lottery priority paid out the typical lowball of 25% fed taxes (usually end later amount paid by jackpot winner is 10% more) plus 3.4% state taxes. Indeed, their actual end $592,900 amount is good "college and annual vacation funds money" for a family, but neither parent would be able to quite their job, yet would have to continue to work toward regular raises and cost of living increases.
Still, apx. $592,000 end net to anybody is better than $0, it allows a big relief from financial stresses. Indeed, if an additional 5.5%+ annual net return is received on the principal for a few decades, all will be pleasant for each sharing family member!
I agree, can you imagine the guy finding the ticket a year later, mixed in with his books? Assuming he would check the numbers, I think he would feel pretty stupid.
This is what their picture would look like if Lori White didn't remind her husband to check the lottery ticket...
he was a manager and she was a p.o. they're def in a higher income level then most of us.
i often wondered if my current worries would multiply if i was a sexy hollywood star.
maybe it's better to be poor and ugly with a dream.
Haha, funny!
Shouldn't the date on that have been Feb 23?
Congrats to the White family!