$10 Million Florida Lottery Jackpot Still Unclaimed

May 6, 2005, 12:00 pm (6 comments)

Florida Lottery

Look under the car seats and check the pockets on those pants that haven't been worn in weeks.

Perhaps crumpled up somewhere is a discarded Florida Lottery Quick Pick ticket worth $10 million. It contains the winning numbers from a drawing on New Year's Day: 11-21-32-35-42-46.

The Circle K store on Morris Bridge Road in Thonotosassa sold the winning ticket.

But if the owner doesn't claim the winnings by midnight on June 30, the ticket won't be worth a nickel.

"This happens quite a bit," said Jacqueline Barreiros, spokeswoman for the Florida Lottery.

Since the Florida Lottery began in 1988, 22 winning tickets have gone unclaimed, Barreiros said. One of them was a $15 million ticket sold on Valentine's Day last year at a 7-Eleven store in St. Petersburg.

"Do we still get our share?" Patrick Riha, marketing communications manager for Circle K, asked jokingly.

The answer is "Yes." Stores that sell winning tickets receive a standard $10,000 bonus, even if the winner never comes forward. In this case, two Lotto players won that particular drawing. Circle K No. 7112 at 12850 Morris Bridge Road will receive $5,000, Barreiros said.

Riha said that almost half the employees who work in ther corporate offices nearby drive past that Circle K on their way home.

"So when we heard that someone had won, we asked around," he said. "We're glad to know it was one of our customers."

Unfortunately for Melissa Kandell, it wasn't her.

"Oh my gosh! That just makes you sick," Kandell said after hearing the news of the unclaimed ticket.

Kandell normally buys Quick Pick tickets. But on Monday, she went to the Circle K and bought a Four Leaf Fortune scratch-off card.

"We were just trying to win four dollars," she said. "I don't think I did Quick Pick then . . . But if I did, where would the ticket be?"

She said she planned to go home and search anyway.

In the past, the Florida Lottery sent out notices 30 days before the expiration of a winning ticket if no one had claimed the jackpot. This is the first time Lotto officials have started a new system, sending out notices 60 days before the expiration.

At the four-week mark, a notice will go out every week, Barreiros said. At the two-week mark, "wanted ads" and posters will be circulated at the store and in local newspapers.

If someone does come up with the ticket, the person will have to accept the prize in 30 annual payments instead of a lump sum. That's because it is more than 60 days after the ticket was drawn, and Internal Revenue Code changes don't allow the lump sum option after that period of time, according to lottery officials.

Unclaimed money goes back into the prize pool or is used for special prize promotions, according to the Florida Lottery's Web site.

If the winning ticket turns up somewhere in the house or tucked away in a wallet, remember, the deadline to claim the winnings is midnight June 30.

The winning lottery ticket can be redeemed at Florida Lottery headquarters at 250 Marriott Drive in Tallahassee, open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  The winner can also call the Florida Lottery at 850-487-7787.

St. Petersburg Times

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Comments

TNPATL

I'm always amazed about the prizes that go unclaimed.  My guess, the people moved out of the state and forgot they played.

The person who played died.

The person lost the ticket!!!

JimmySand9


And just for the record, Thonotasassa isn't even really a town. It's just a name for a big swath of rural land in Hillsborough County.

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE


i can't see how anybody would buy a ticket and not check it.....

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE


its probably floating in the atlantic ocean....

CASH Only


That's another incentive to check the ticket early; if it's claimed, they won't be able to collect in lump sum, since FL starts the 60-day clock with the drawing.

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

its probably floating in the atlantic ocean....

maybe it floated to cuba,lol

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