STALLINGS, N.C. — Odds are the N.C. Lottery is about to hit an unwanted milestone — its first unclaimed $1 million ticket.
Someone bought a Mega Millions ticket in Stallings, hit all five numbers for the white balls on the Aug. 20 game and won $1 million. But the multistate jackpot prize has gone unclaimed. And if no one shows up with the ticket at lottery headquarters in Raleigh by 5 p.m. Wednesday, the ticket will expire.
"We really do want to find this person," lottery spokesman Ryan Kennemur said Monday.
The winning numbers from the $2 ticket are 4-13-20-29-48. Odds of getting all five numbers for a $1 million prize are 1 in 3.9 million.
Since the lottery began in March 2006, there have been 16 unclaimed prizes worth between $100,000 to $800,000, Kennemur said. All of those tickets involved either Powerball or Carolina Cash 5 tickets.
If no one claims the Mega Millions prize, Kennemur said half of the winnings will go to the lottery's education fund and the other half will help cover a Medicaid shortfall.
The ticket was sold at a Market Express gas station adjoining a McDonald's restaurant on Old Monroe Road. Ticket sales shot up once people heard about the winning ticket, Market Express manager Esther Roach said.
Under a retailer incentive plan, the store owners receive $10,000 for selling the ticket, regardless if it is claimed, according to Kennemur.
A big blue sign over the store's cash register informs customers that time is running out to claim the winning ticket. "They ask and ask and ask about it," cashier Jessica Massey said.
At least three men have come into the store bemoaning that they lost the winning ticket, Roach said. Two claimed they were cleaning out old lottery tickets and simply threw it away.
Then there was the regular customer who told Roach he went to McDonald's but bought the lottery ticket to get change when the restaurant couldn't break his $100 bill. He stuck the ticket in the McDonald's bag and later threw it away, he said.
His trash was picked up the day the man realized his potential million-dollar mistake. So he followed the truck to the dump, explained what happened and went through mounds of refuse.
He told Roach he somehow found his trash and the McDonald's bag. It contained the restaurant receipt, but the lottery ticket was nowhere to be found.
If there's any consolation for the luckless lottery player, it could have been worse. Lottery tickets worth $30.1 million and $28.5 million went unclaimed in Florida and California, respectively.
Then there's Indiana. In 2002, a $51.7 million jackpot expired without anyone claiming it.
I really hate hearing about these types of stories. If you are going to play the lottery, keepo your dayum ticket in a safe spot. Whats the point of playing if you dont really care?
Could end up being a very sad story.
I hope not though, I hope the winner has just been messing with the media, lottery hq, etc and will claim it soon. If that is the case, they are an idiot anyway.
But I kind of believe this Mcdonalds story. THAT in and of itself is sad that this poor sap chased a garbage truck and found it and dug through naddy- @$$ garbage only to come up empty handed. How did they identify their own garbage anyway?
What do you all think of part of the winning going towards Medicaid if it isnt claimed?
I agree B$Rizzle if you are going to play be responsible and check your ticket....
people who buy tickets, and don't ever hold onto them to check to see if it could be a big winner, make me sad for what may happen
my worst nitemare thro is if someone wins a jackpot like mm or pb, and Never claims it, then they say for mm/pb it goes back to all the states for them to do whatever
i don't think that's fair to all the people who played during them draws for their jackpot prize pool to go to the states, the amount should just be added back into the current jackpot prize pool if atfer 6/1 year whatever no one claims
cease while i hope it never happen, seeing story's where even a million bucks goes unclaimed makes me think, some day, perheps the next jackpot winner or or next decade or 2, in my life time i see a pb/mm go unclaimed, all the players money boosting that jackpot up would of been wasted as the state just use's it
to avoid this nitemare form ever coming true, they need to in my mind make it so the money gets put back into the prize pool winnings where it belongs
they already take near 40 to 50% off the top of ever ticket sold that goes right to the lottery, why should they be allowed to also win the prize money cease some idiot buys a ticket and never checks it/holds onto it, or god forbid they somehow "lost" it
hell if won a major jackpot, first thing i do is turn video record off my freaking phone, also use my pc scanner, also my pc web cam, i have so much proof , hell i even email a video to my hotmail account so in case the house burns down, the video share in the digi world on hotmail servers or some place LOL
Anyone know if this ticket was bought using the quick pick option?
I'm thinking maybe someone carelessly threw away the ticket without even carefully chekcing to see if the ticket was a winner.
Yikes!
Why play if you aren't going to check your ticket
I always check and double-check my ticket!
o.o if it really was in his mcdonalds bag... i hope he didnt accidently eat it.
Yes, that lottery ticket should be treated like fine wine! As far as the unclaimed Indiana ticket -- that's a lot of money to go unclaimed. Perhaps, the person passed away: no sensible, living lottery player would ignore that large amount of money, period.
update: the night of the drawing a man knew he had won $1,000,000...he waited until 3 weeks later to tell his wife... he waited 3 weeks b/c he wanted to tell his wife when she was having a bad day to cheer her up... they wanted to wait ( forgot why now) but then the husband misplaced the winning ticket.. the winning ticket was cashed in yesterday...