A man finds a winning ticket in his junk drawer.
You never know what you’ll find when sifting through a drawer of odds and ends.
One New Zealand man went looking for some tape and found a winning lottery ticket worth over 600 thousand New Zealand dollars.
The man had heard there was a November Lotto winner out there somewhere, but he never imagined it could be him.
Nonetheless, he grabbed the forgotten handful of tickets, checked them online, and discovered he was the big winner.
So, what would have happened if he’d lost or completely forgotten it?
In the US, rules vary by state and by game. Scratch-offs are good for about 90 days and big-prize draws like Lotto are typically redeemable for up to a year.
If it is lost, you may want to focus on winning the lottery again. Your only prayer is if you signed it and it gets returned to you. Once your signature is on it you’re the only one who can redeem it.
Unclaimed prizes can go to any number of places depending on the state, including back into the lottery pool, to offset property taxes, and to education.
