New Mexico man claims $200,000 prize hours before it would expire

Nov 12, 2007, 12:02 pm (9 comments)

Powerball

Marguerite Padilla of Farmington wanted to rush to New Mexico Lottery headquarters three hours away in Albuquerque to claim a $200,000 prize. But her husband had other ideas.

Timothy Padilla wanted to go elk hunting first.

"Not even a winning Powerball ticket could stop an elk hunting trip," he told lottery officials when the couple claimed the prize Wednesday. "We had just enough time to do both things."

Lottery officials warned last week that the $200,000 prize from the Aug. 15 drawing was due to expire Nov. 13. Prizes for lotto-style games expire if not claimed within 90 days.

Timothy Padilla, 37, said he always buys a ticket for Powerball drawings and leaves it on the kitchen counter.

"Then I never check the tickets," he said.

But his wife, reading a newspaper article Friday about the unclaimed ticket, grabbed the stack of old tickets and went through them. Then she called him at UPS, where he's a manager.

"I said, 'Come home now. You won the lottery,'" Marguerite Padilla said.

When he got home, they debated what to do — and decided to keep their weekend plans.

The ticket matched five numbers. Had it also picked the Aug. 15 Powerball number, it would have been worth $183.7 million, lottery officials said.

Revenue from lottery sales go to tuition scholarships for New Mexico students who attend colleges and universities in the state.

AP

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Miss Charli's avatarMiss Charli

Smile I can not believe it !  I thought i was the only one to nto check my tickets half the time ! lol lol lol  Thnak gosh his Wife reads the paper , or else they'd of never claimed the winnings !  Just hours before it was too expire !  Wow  Close call.  Congraulations .Embarassed

Miss Charli's avatarMiss Charli

 It has always been  my dream to get in with a powerball pool .  Do you know of any forming ?Smile

spy153's avatarspy153

Quote: Originally posted by Miss Charli on Nov 12, 2007

 It has always been  my dream to get in with a powerball pool .  Do you know of any forming ?Smile

Miss Charli, why don't you just start one yourself.  That way, you will always know what's going on and when.Wink  I'll bet your friends are secretly wanting the same thing.

kalikgirl's avatarkalikgirl

Way to go! Congratulations to the couplel in New Mexico. Its a good thing that the mans wife checked the newspaper. It would have been disappointing to not be able to claim due to negligence.

wizeguy's avatarwizeguy

congrats to the winners! wow!, only 90 days to claim winnings. not very long.

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

I can imagine enough planning after winning a jackpot that 90 days would pass in a hurry, but 90 days is plenty of time for a prize of that amount. What's not much time is the slim margin between the trip and the deadline. A sprained ankle while out hunting or a fender bender that otherwise would have cost only an insurance deductible and a couple of days of being stiff and sore could easily have cost them the little time they had left.

tntea's avatartntea

I collected on my 8th pool yesterday.

I have 8 going not counting the wins pool 1 has had that was turned back into numbers. We now have pool 1a and pool 1b along with pool 1

Pool 1A will expire tonight.

 

You can create your own pool...

What I am doing...

I only  use people I know to be on my pool..

I use a receipt book... One that people uses to collect rent... you get duplicate sheets... (you a copy... them a copy)

One receipt.. Write which pool it is... and how many people are in the pool.. put the control number to ticket on receipt. It is more important than the actual playing numbers...

Then make copies of all and pass out to other pool members..

I do not buy ticket until all or sold and paid for...

I have pools with  5 people putting in $2.. for 1 number for 10 draws

I  have pools with  10 people putting in $1.. for 1 number for 10 draws

I have 8 people in a pool who put in $4 for 4 numbers for 8 draws.

and then there are the two number lines for ten draws.. those are 5 people putting in $4..

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

At least that got their money before time ran out. That would have sucked. I bet they will start checking their tickets from now on. I don't always check my tickets right away, but I don't wait till they're about to expire either.

TexasDreams's avatarTexasDreams

Well can someone say "By the skin of your teeth..."

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