Winner waited to claim "for personal reasons"
By Kate Northrop
LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan woman waited a year to claim her $1 million Powerball lottery prize, bringing in her winning ticket just hours before it was about to expire.
Michigan Lottery officials received a visit from a lottery winner who came in to claim a $1 million Powerball prize that was just hours away from disappearing.
Last year, someone matched five white balls in the July 14 Powerball drawing — 8, 12, 45, 46, and 63 — to win the game's second-tier prize of $1 million. That winner was Theresa Lynchosky, 63, who had bought her ticket online.
Then on Wednesday, the Michigan Lottery announced her win.
"I regularly play Powerball and purchase my tickets online," Lynchosky said in a press release. "The day after the drawing I logged on to my Lottery account and was stunned when a notification popped up saying I won $1 million! I took a screenshot of the pop-up and kept going back and looking at it because I couldn't believe it was real."
The Rochester Hills resident told Lottery staff that she waited to claim the prize on purpose, explaining that it was due to "personal reasons" that she put it off for so long.
"I decided to wait to claim the prize for personal reasons and didn't tell anyone about the big win until last week when I told my best friend," she elaborated. "I was so happy to finally share the news with someone and I'm even happier to be here claiming my prize after waiting a year."
Lottery officials said she recently claimed Lottery headquarters in Lansing to claim her winnings, which she plans to put into savings.
"I still don't have the words to describe what winning this prize means to me," she added. "I feel so grateful and blessed!"
Had Lynchosky not claimed the prize in time, the prize money would have been funneled to the state School Aid Fund, which finances K-12 public education, community colleges, and higher education.
The next Powerball annuity jackpot estimate for the drawing on Monday, July 20 currently stands at $544 million.
Powerball is currently offered for sale in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.
Powerball lottery results are published within minutes of the drawing at USA Mega (www.usamega.com). The USA Mega Web site provides lottery players in-depth information about the United States's two biggest multi-state lottery games, Mega Millions and Powerball.
Waiting till the last minute is not smart. Number one paper ticket fade and money is not yours for a full year. So instead of being a millionaire for example ten years you are now a millionaire for Nine years. Your life clock ⏰ does not stop so why Stop your $1,000,000 Clock ⏰
I don't know how you all feel about her reason or excuse, for claiming hours before $1M expires. PERSONAL REASONS. Something just doesn't seem right . Maybe someone else got screwed.
Would they accept the ticket if you lost it but took a pic of both sides of the ticket on your phone.
1. It was an online ticket.
2. I do not see anything suspicious. She might have been seriously ill and needed to improve or finalizing a divorce. Could have been delaying tax consequences as well.
There are many reasons to do what she did. Lots are very sneaky, while lots are very legit. We will probably never know the reasons.
But cutting the claim time down to hours cannot be a wise thing to do.
As I said in another post, just like in a good horror movie, anything can happen at any time for any reason or no reason at all.
Thank goodness for her that nothing bad happened on that last day.
Best wishes to all...
She played online-- The lottery usually tries to contact the winner by phone or e-mail. Was that done in this case?? Did this person ignore all attempts to be contacted?? The reason we play the lottery is to strike it rich so we can enjoy the money. Waiting the whole year is counterproductive and risky considering there is a deadline.
"The day after the drawing I logged on to my Lottery account and was stunned when a notification popped up saying I won $1 million! I took a screenshot of the pop-up and kept going back and looking at it because I couldn't believe it was real."
As a top of the line attorney that you play on the internet, you are saying that you should encourage your CLIENT FINALIZING A DIVORCE to hide a $1M winning lottery ticket from the husband so the husband gets screwed regardless. I feel sorry for that your client because you know what will happen when the husband finds out and sues.
There she blows again.
Always in such a foul mood but thanks for the compliment mixed in your rant. Hope your teacher retirement plan is doing better. The operative word in my prior response was "finalizing" a divorce.
As someone who gave this winner the benefit of the doubt and we had little real info, there are multiple potential above board scenarios:
If she purchased the ticket after separating or filing for divorce, whether this ticket is marital property varies state to state. And if it was considered marital property, the details of who gets what in terms of assets would have to be negotiated and finalized. It is not always a 50 50 split of each individual asset depending on whom wants which asset. A husband might want the paid off home and other assets vs lottery cash. Finalizing who gets what can take years.
Hope this obvious and simple response makes sense .
Spouse 1: If you ever hit the lottery, I'm taking half and leaving you.
Spouse 2: Hey, today's your lucky day!! I just won $10 on a scratch off. Here's your half. Start packing.
Nope!!!
Not the same thing, but had read that KY will cash on-line winners up to $50K. Like I mentioned before if you play on-line and win the big jackpot, they will not split the winnings if so desiredl
waiting until a mere few hours before it expires is absolutely bananas but i'm glad she claimed it without hitting a snag. even with mysterious personal issues it's safer to give yourself a few days padding just in case there's some fluke issue that delays you, like the app glitching, or your car battery suddenly dying, or you recently ate lettuce at taco bell.
* The winner said she was stunned. It's extremely difficult to keep a secret that long from others, considering that she said she kept going back to see if it was real. Her personal reason could be viewed as a self induced coma. Is it possible to be stunned for a year? Well, Theresa has shown that the answer is Yes.There you have it.😊
Why not hire an estate planning attorney and claim it anonymously in a lottery trust? Might have received the $$ sooner than waiting a year for it. Now everybody in Michigan knows her name and the city/town she lives in. G5
Reminder to all that one cannot claim a lottery win with a trust if your state does not allow it. I know most members know this fact. Trusts are NOT an automatic default.
The pinned anonymity topic in the jp thread sets forth the rules for Michigan.
You're correct. Florida law does allow a winner to temporarily claim anonymously for 90 days. It's also possible to set up a trust and have a lawyer claim a large prize with a trust. You don't have to take my word for it though. You could ask your buddy Kurt Panouses to confirm that. He's done it more than once. In Sept of 2024 a trust named "Beth2kids trust" claimed a Powerball jackpot win in Indiatlantic Florida. Panouses' office is located in Indiatlantic.
You need to update your pinned thread in the jackpot forum as I didn't see anything about claiming via a trust in Florida in the jackpot thread. G5
OMG. Is this poster capable of reading lp news articles and comments?
No one mentioned Florida.
This winner was from Michigan and had no connection to Florida.
So you're not going to update your thread? Can't or won't pass along good to know information to LP members that live in Florida? Thanks a lot.
I dunno, if you're such a hot shot lawyer why aren't you working for a high profile law firm in New York or LA? Instead you're a country bumpkin lawyer running your mouth on the internet? Make the big bucks doing that, do you?
Could be anxiety holding her back. Glad she was able to come forward.
She waited a year but I am not sure she did her "homework".
Michigan is a state that let's you claim anonymously.
They gave her name when she could have claimed this ANONYMOUSLY via a trust or LLC in her state and they would have allowed an attorney to represent her as per their rules.
Then again, she seemed happy and relieved to have told someone about her win....
(Hope things go well for her from here on in....)
Omg. An old man tries to snap his fingers and order a woman to do something now !!! And he clearly does not know anything about attorneys.
Since Todd does the actual physical updating of the anonymity summary, it is interesting that senile gramps thinks he is not doing his job well enough or fast enough.
Gramps always steps into it. Todd does an excellent job btw.
Why always engage in all this HISTRIONICS? LP is a community of lottery players. If any member asked you a question, and you feel too big to answer, just shut the heck up and move on. Do not thrash the members while invoking TODD'S name as a SHIELD and a WEAPON at the same time. LP is a business, and is there to generate profits. Do not chase away members by antagonizing them. We long term members have upgraded our membership to PLATINUM in appreciation of the value we get from LP. What's holding you back? Don't be a SNOWFLAKE, upgrade to PLATINUM MEMBERSHIP.
Funny how keyboard Pie-hole loses it when facts are presented. She lost it in an earlier post and told me how dare I mention Todd's name. Perhaps a secret crush???
Waiting to see a helpful and useful pinned post by her with over 200 k views. Not all of us are desperate for a lottery win.
As usual, just a very unhappy and hysterical retired school teacher who attacked me first in this topic. What is is about teachers and nurses today? So many have over the top anger issues.
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This is even worse than I thought