For nearly six months, Lydia Burke of Mechanicsville, Virginia, had a Mega Millions ticket worth $250,000 and she didn't know it. The ticket sat in a napkin holder in her kitchen.
Then on September 23, she happened to see a news report that a Mega Millions ticket purchased at the 7-Eleven located at 2413 Staples Mill Road in Richmond was about to expire. She remembered buying a ticket at that store, so she checked the ticket in her napkin holder.
"Oh my goodness, when I saw that ticket and saw those numbers, I screamed, 'I got it! I got it!'" she later said.
Ms. Burke and her husband Gregory presented the ticket to Virginia Lottery officials at 9:00 a.m. on September 24 — just eight hours before the ticket would have expired.
According to Virginia Lottery rules, winning tickets expire 180 days after the drawing. Her ticket was for the March 27, 2009, Mega Millions drawing. It matched the first five numbers and only missed the Mega Ball number to win Mega Millions' second prize of $250,000. The winning numbers for that drawing were 10-15-24-38-50 and the Mega Ball number was 19. The ticket was set to expire at 5:00 p.m. on September 24.
Ms. Burke told Lottery officials she and her husband plan to use their winnings to take their first vacation in years.
Thanks to Truesee for the tip.
what's the deal with people not checking there tickets after the drawing? this seems far from the norm to me. i check within 24-48 hours and then trash those losers. anyway, my nickel advice.
I normally check mine the next morning .......
personally I'd
if some one had a $250k winner and missed the deadline
Well, she was lucky she saw that news report. Otherwise, she would have been out a lot of money. Congrats to her!
Lydia Burke must have a good memory. She buys a lottery ticket, doesn't bother to check it and put it aside and forget about it but on seeing the news report about a MegaMillions ticket worth $250K sold at a certain 7-11 store almost 180 days earlier, she remembers buying a ticket at that store about that time and putting it in a napkin holder and it's then she decides to check it. What are the odds that most players would remember where they bought a ticket six months earlier let alone where they placed it? Congratulation to the winner.
she needs to improve that memory.........by tying a string on her finger.......to remind her to check her next ticket she buys.............it might be a winner!!!!!!!(does she put all her tickets in a napkin holder.....there might be other winners there......) does that mean it's been almost 6 months since she cleaned off her table???????
Thats what I was thinking. How filthy was her napkin holder and the NAPKINS in it, yuck.
I can't understand why the negative, petty comments about her cleaning habits on how and where she stored her ticket. If she had stored the winning ticket in the bathroom, it is no one's business but her own. We all choose different places to keep our tickets; The bottom line is she found the winning ticket in time to collect it and that is a blessing in itself.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS WINNER AND HER FAMILY--I HOPE SHE ENJOYS HER WELL DESERVED VACATION
Yea, another encouraging story! I'm given hope again.
They must be pretty clean eaters, they don't use alot of napkins.
i feel happy she found it last minute. but seriously, even if it's 1 minute late, you think the lottery is going to deny her the money? Lots of money hanging on a potential difference of mere minutes, whether clock strikes past midnight or not
I just found a $2.00 mega ball winner from 8/14 which was in a pile of Mega #s (jackpost was $146mil) which my girlfriend had sitting off in a corner of the kitchen
Congrats to her...yes I agree with checking sooner, but some people do lead busy lives that prevent them from checking each ticket right after each drawing. I worked as an over-the-road driver for the past few years and I could not check my tickets every week (I happened to be a driver who made good money). I made sure to purchase tickets for EVERY MM and PB drawing even though I also spent upwards of a month out of the country. Now I will be leaving the US for a year to go serve the country, so I am grateful that Illinois now has Mega Millions subscriptions. I will just have to have my brother purchase and track my Powerball tickets as it would do me no good to purchase a ticket that turns out to be a winner as I wouldn't be able to claim it within the 180 day timeframe (yeah, if it was a jackpot winner, I would probably be allowed to return to the US to claim it, but if we're talking about a second tier winner, I couldn't see leaving theater to claim it even though it is a nice sum of money).
So I will hope to win before I go (even if I were to win a jackpot MM/PB drawing, I would still go over and serve my time in XXXX middle eastern country). And then I will enjoy my winnings when I return stateside. If only I could be so blessed!
I can totally relate to her system of buying tickets and never checking them. After losing so many times I just buy them and keep them on top of the tv. Then after a while I will bring them all to the store to self scan and trash them (I never find winners!
).
I also want to say something about the Virginia lottery. Thats one honest lottery commission that they will advertise of an unclaimed ticket. I have yet to see that kind of honesty around where I come from.
Thank you for your service to our country---I hope you win before to go but what a fantastic story to read that you won the lottery while you were overseas
Check out this book available on amazon about an activist who wins the lottery. The name of the book is Billion Dollar Winner by A P Jones.
When I travel, I clean out my wallet and take out all my receipts, which include lottery tix. Then I don't get around to checking them until about a month later.
As for her napkin holder, it's probably an old one that she got as a gift and not the one she actually uses.
Would there be any point in reading a book based on a post from an author with so little confidence in their book that they join forums just to spam people about the book? Can we draw any conclusions about a book from an author's apparent stupidity in using such tactics, especially in the author's inability to even manage to somehow make the spam seen even remotely related to the topic?
There is already a book out about an activist who wins the lottery...it is titled "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama. But you could change the name of it to Trillion Dollar Winner by Barack Obama.
So that is the ticket...get elected to Congress or even the Presidency, and you are in the money baby. Heck, even some Congressmen hit the real lottery from time to time. Or network and get appointed as one of those czars.
Okay enough on that as I said I had let all of that stuff go...got to deal with the here and now...and of course, the what may be in the future.
I usually check my tickets the next day or soon thereafter.
I rarely win, but I am surprised from time to time.
I am slowly sinking in a financial mess ... I could really use some luck before I have sell everything !!!!!
It has been a slow decline into the abyss since I lost my last fulltime job in 2001 !
We need leaders that understand economics ... not idiots following kook theory !
I know that I am not the only one in need ... good luck to all !
I find the story hard to believe..If you buy lotto tickets I thnik you check them as soon as you can...Like I said I find the story hart to believe...