CARY, N.C. — A winning lottery ticket purchased in North Carolina worth $25,000 a year for life is set to expire next week.
Someone bought the Lucky For Life ticket at the Harris Teeter on N.C. 55 in Cary, North Carolina, on April 11, a Monday. The winner has 180 days to claim the prize, which ends Oct. 7.
"We're asking Lucky For Life players in Wake County to double check their tickets," said Alice Garland, executive director of the N.C. Education Lottery. "It takes a lot of luck to win, and we hate to see any prize go unclaimed."
The winning numbers for the April 11 drawing were 4, 12, 16, 20, 24, and 18. The missing ticket matched five of those numbers, good for second prize. The top prize is $1,000 a day for life.
The odds of winning the second prize are one in 1.8 million.
To claim the prize, the ticket must be brought to lottery headquarters on Yonkers Road in Raleigh by 5 p.m. Oct. 7.
The state lottery tries to get the word out when big prizes are in danger of going unclaimed, says spokeswoman Kathleen Jacob. The last time it happened was in June with a $100,000 Powerball ticket sold in Hendersonville, Jacob said, and the player saw a report about it on the local TV news and claimed the prize five hours before it was about to expire.
Still, sometimes big lottery prizes go unclaimed. In 2011, a Powerball ticket worth $1 million purchased at a convenience store on New Bern Avenue did not materialize before the deadline.
When that happens, half the money goes back into the prize fund for future games and the other half goes to the education fund.
Lucky for Life is a multi-state lottery game currently played in 20 states plus Washington, D.C. Winning lottery tickets must always be redeemed in the state they were purchased, even for multi-state games.
This store is not too far from where I live and I have purchased lottery tickets there but I rarely play Lucky for life .
People who buy lottery tickets need to treat them the same way they would treat cash.
$25,000 a year for life is a lot of money to win and then not collect.
They still have Few days.
please let the ticket expire b4 they can claim it
YEP THEY SURE DO!
I am PRAYING that whomever plays and has that WINNING Ticket collects their money before the Deadline!
This is partly why I always keep our NON winning Tickets, the other reason is so when WE WIN we can take the losers off our Taxes.
$25K a year would be certainly enough to give us the help we need & we'd probably still be under POVERTY LEVEL....
OH, NOW THAT'S JUST MEAN!!!!
I agree. I bet that ticket is in the floor of someones car, or in the city dump.
what a waste. I would have loved to had that ticket! wouldn't you?
If they're too stupid to take care of the ticket or even check it, they don't deserve the money.