Massachusetts player claimed $500,000 Powerball prize one day before it expired

Comment #17

Stack47 — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 22:45:48 GMT

They probably bought the ticket on a Sunday or Monday, placed in their sleeve, never checked the ticket on Thursday morning and forgot about it. But going 364 days without noticing it in the sleeve is strange even if they only buy tickets now and then. And even more strange because they spent an extra dollar on PowerPlay.

Bet there is more to this story and hopefully unlike when Crawford Shaw showed up at the Iowa Lottery headquarters hours before that Hot Lotto ticket expired.

Comment #16

Big Joey — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 20:44:28 GMT

A Louisiana Lotto ticket just expired with no one claiming it worth 500K.

Why play? I always put my tickets on my refrigerator door with a magnet.

Comment #15

MsBee18 — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 20:06:41 GMT

Some people it takes several weeks to realize they won. Or he/she might be holding on to the winning ticket for the best time to claim. You know when life is less hectic. I still have faith that the ticket will not go unclaimed. We shall see

Comment #14

GiveFive — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 14:09:50 GMT

On July 31st, 2021 a Florida Fantasy5 jackpot winning Free Ticket worth more than $215,000 was sold in a supermarket in Davie Florida. (That's a whopper of a Fantasy5 jackpot. Usually Fantasy5 jackpots are split among multiple winners, but even when there is just one winner, the prize is less than $200,000)

It's still unclaimed as of yesterday. In Florida, Fantasy5 winners have six months to claim their prize. Since June of 2012, there have been 12 unclaimed Free Ticket jackpot winners that h... [ More ]

Comment #13

GiveFive — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 13:56:24 GMT

The man was luckier than he even knows.

Not only did he claim the ticket one day before it expired, he was also lucky the clerk didn't try to scam him. To top it all off, the PowerPlay multiplier was 10X. The 10X multiplier has been drawn in maybe five drawings since October of 2015 when it first began. (That's a total of 613 drawings) G5

Comment #12

Bleudog101 — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 02:36:28 GMT

Well Kentucky lottery thank you for being true to your word. FB post that Pick 3 4 are now available on-line.

Comment #11

PrisonerSix — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 01:58:30 GMT

I always check mine the next day. The Louisiana Lottery now has a phone app that will scan the barcode and check the ticket. However, it doesn't always work for some reason, so I often check on the web page as well.

I'm glad he got his jackpot on time. We've had some jackpots in this state expire unclaimed. The theory is someone passing through bought the tickets and never bothered to check them later.

Comment #10

justadream — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 19:56:52 GMT

I agree... sounds fishy to me

Comment #9

Mata Garbo — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 19:45:51 GMT

The people who run the lottery in Idaho must be a bunch of potato heads. Why would you basically force people to buy the Powerplay whether they want it or not? I always buy the Powerplay, but there are a lot of people who never get Powerplay. There should never be a rule that says your only option is to pay more, or you don't play. This could backfire and leave a lot of officials looking pretty stupid.

Comment #8

noise-gate — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 17:25:19 GMT

..but he didn't even realize it - l say he did. We not idiots

Comment #7

billybucks — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 17:13:33 GMT

You hear about the occasional clerk that gets caught somehow doing that. Some are clever enough to give you say 100.00 when you actually won 500.00 or more just to get you out of the store feeling happy and not even thinking that you were scammed. I would say this happens every day to someone in every state. There is no way to determine how many. I do know I have run into clerks who don't mind checking people's ticket especially if they look like an easy mark.

Comment #6

Raven62 — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 15:19:50 GMT

Congrats to the Winner

Comment #5

Bleudog101 — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 15:14:57 GMT

Thanks Todd for running this story, maybe not on my suggestion but that's cool.

That's it, if I win the Megabucks Doubler my fox/coon hound dog will be driving home and visiting the newest lottery headquarters. Don't think she can ride the red line subway though which is steps from the place so would have to drive!

Thankfully they instituted an app to scan your tickets on your cellular phone. We upgraded here, two free phones since the older Android ones would not allow the app t... [ More ]

Comment #4

onenumber — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 14:16:47 GMT

You are so right, always check your own ticket. How hard is that!! Store clerks often lie, why take that chance.

Comment #3

Stat$talker — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 13:59:55 GMT

He ran another risk allowing the store clerk to tell him whether his ticket was a winner, for they often lie to the ticket holder...I always look for a Lottery ticket scanner that allows ME to see scan it, to see if the ticket is a winner or not..but mostly I let my computer check my tickets for each drawing, if I play.

Comment #2

CDanaT — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 13:06:36 GMT

Amen Rcb...... It truly amazes me how some folks treat a potential multi-million dollar document like it's warranty card for a household appliance.

Comment #1

rcbbuckeye — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 12:23:46 GMT

Good for him that he caught it in time. That would not happen with me, I'm checking my tix right after the draw.

Massachusetts player claimed $500,000 Powerball prize one day before it expired

Lottery Post — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 11:32:22 GMT

By Kate Northrop

A $500,000 Powerball prize almost went by the wayside, but thankfully the rightful winner from Massachusetts stepped up to claim it just one day before it was due to expire.

Leonard Thomas of South Dennis won $500,000 in a Powerball drawing that took place on Aug. 19, 2020, but he didn't even realize it.

Luckily, he had the ticket tucked away in a safe spot, albeit for nearly a full year, after buying it at the Mobil gas station on Route 134 in South Dennis.

I heard... [ More ]