Did you buy a lottery ticket from the 7-11 on Eastern Boulevard last month? If so, maybe you should double check to see if you picked 12-18-25-35-66, because somebody did, and won a million dollars–and hasn’t claimed the prize yet.
The new millionaire has until mid-August to claim his or her prize. Probably, s/he is waiting to claim the money either for tax purposes, or so his/her family doesn’t start asking for loans. But it’s also possible that the winner has no idea about the winning ticket. Every year around $800 million in lottery prizes never get claimed, including multiple tickets worth $1 million or more; in 2013, someone won $10.4 million playing Powerball in Florida… and never collected the money.
“You just hope for their sake that they never know they missed out,” Florida Lottery official told CNN.
