Two weeks after putting out a call for the holder of a soon-to-expire unclaimed $1 million ticket to step forward, New Jersey Lottery officials made one last plea Tuesday morning.
The second-prize Cash4Life ticket sold in New Jersey will be worthless if it's not claimed in the next three days. It expires when the New Jersey Lottery's offices close for the weekend at 4:30 p.m. Friday.
Sold at the Joyce Kilmer along the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick last year, the lucky ticket matched five numbers but not the Cash Ball for the Dec. 8, 2016 drawing.
The service area is located at milepost 78.7 on the northbound side of the toll road.
The ticket can be validated at any lottery retailer. Once validated, the retailer will provide the ticket holder with a validation slip and completed claim form that must be brought to lottery headquarters in Lawrence.
The winning numbers for the drawing were 8, 28, 29, 49, and 57. The Cash Ball, which the $1 million ticket didn't contain, was 3.
"We encourage all of our New Jersey Lottery players to do a thorough search of their nooks and crannies at home and elsewhere because we want to make a Cash4Life player a jackpot winner," New Jersey Lottery executive director Carole Hedinger said in a statement.
Second-prize Cash4Life tickets are worth either $1 million or $1,000 a week for the remainder of the winner's life, though that election is made at the time of the purchase.
Cash4Life tickets are sold in New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia. Drawings are held on Monday and Thursday nights.
The odds of a $2 ticket matching five numbers and winning $1 million are 7,282,016 to 1. It's a 21,846,048 to 1 shot to hit the jackpot — $1,000 a day for life or the cash option of $7 million.
Since the Ticket was obtained along the Turnpike: the Person could be from another State...
LP Staff and Todd Northrop, this could be one of you guys!
What a shame the winner has missed the prize.
Why do people buy tickets if they're not going to check them? SMH
Oooooooooooops!
Landfill: The great inheritor.
The headline had me ready to check my box of losers, then read where the ticket was sold...no need to do that !
For record-breaking Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots, I kind of understand the lackadaisical mentality. Spending a few dollars for a dream with no real intent of winning.
However, for regular size jackpot drawings, I don't understand it. And even less so yet for Cash4Life, which has a set top prize that doesn't grow along with very easy to win lower tier prizes. Why would anyone buy a ticket for such a game and not check it. Doesn't make sense.
In this instance, if the winner never comes forward, I don't have much sympathy. They've had nearly a year. Players have a responsibility to check their tickets. Not difficult, especially with every U.S. lottery having a website, most newspapers still publish lottery results, plus various third-party sites, such as Lottery Post.
Although I can't speak to the winner in this case, I can give an example of how this might happen from personal experience.
Last week I brought two FL Lucky Money (i.e. Powerball-lite) tickets to claim at a grocery store. One ticket was a $3 winner the other ticket was a winner for a free ticket. The cashier cashed both tickets and asked me if I wanted the $3. I asked for more tickets. I completely forgot about the free ticket that printed out at the terminal. The cashier gave me the new ticket I purchased while the validation printouts below it covered up the free ticket that printed out earlier. The last thing I remember was the cashier grabbing the validation slips for the tickets and throwing everything away...likely including the free ticket.
Obviously this could have been an attempt by the cashier to steal the ticket, but I've seen this cashier many times and when I told her about it yesterday, she was genuinely sorry and offered to buy me a ticket. I declined. If the free ticket was a winner, it is long gone in the landfill by now.
Thankfully nobody won the jackpot for that drawing so I can sleep easy. Also, I learned to be more careful with my tickets.
Time to check the glove box or the many places you could inadvertently place and forgot about a ticket.
Yea like the NJ lottery really wants someone to find the ticket. LOL Give me a break.
l wonder if unclaimed prizes across the US, end up going to education, to benefit the kids? Out in CA they do.
I know this is not the place for this but i need help from Todd and nice people here.
I used to play Hot Lotto till Tipton fiasco. Now it's Lotto America which they promised Machine Draw ball .
But i can't seems to find the draws anywhere online. No video of a single draw anywhere. So why MUSL put up a video on their website like how Luckyforlife does on their website. If powerball draw video is online why not LOTTO AMERICA.
Or they are still using the RNG is that why they don't show any video of the draw on Youtube or anywhere else. May be am just being paranoid but after Tipton issues i don't want to waste my 1 or 2$ on a draw that i can't see lol.
If any of you can help that will be great. Thank you, bless you
Tick,Tock...
Somehow this story resonated with me with that guy in Northern NJ who had a MM or PB jackpot winner. Signed it and tossed it into the mail like the last day. It was honored, but personally would have driven to Trenton with ticket in tow.
BOOM!
Time is up! Someone just lost out on a cool million dollars. Actually, after taxes, it would have been less than $600,000.00.