$28.5 million lottery jackpot remains unclaimed

Mar 2, 2004, 5:57 am (7 comments)

California Lottery

Going ... going ... not quite gone.

The mystery winner holding the missing jackpot lottery ticket from the Sept. 10 California SuperLotto Plus drawing has until March 8 -- that's Monday -- to claim the $28.5 million prize.  After that, the money goes into the public schools pot.

"We've been wondering for over six months," said Mona Sanders, the California Lottery sales representative for the San Lorenzo store that sold the winning ticket. "Someone asks every day" if the winning ticket has been turned in.

As of Monday, the answer was no.

The winning numbers: 34, 43, 27, 20, 7 and Mega Number 6.

If the ticket-holder does not come forward, it will be the largest unclaimed jackpot in California Lottery history, bigger than the $25 million prize that went begging in Los Angeles in 2000.

The missing ticket was sold at Kavanagh's Liquors, on Via Mercado, just off Hesperian Boulevard, and was one of two winners that day.

The other, also worth $28.5 million, was purchased at Seacliff Plaza in Aptos.

Lottery proceeds are split among the winners, who share about 52 percent, and California public schools, which receive about 35 percent.

Kavanagh's gets half a percent of the $28.5 million that the ticket is worth, or $142,500, and it gets the money whether the prize is claimed or not.

The San Lorenzo store is already the luckiest in Northern California. The unclaimed ticket is the fourth and largest jackpot winner the store has sold. Only three stores in California have sold as many or more: One in Port Hueneme, near Oxnard, which has sold six; one in Baker, which has sold five; and one in Hawthorne, which has sold four.

Contra Costa Times

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MichiganHopeful's avatarMichiganHopeful

Wow...I wonder if they lost the ticket...or just did not realize that they won. I can't imagine not claiming $28 million dollars! I hope someone claims it before the deadline...it would be ashame for all that money to go unclaimed.

nitabug's avatarnitabug

hum.... now where did I put th

CASH Only

Did they choose cash? CA requires the choice to be made when you PLAY.

fja's avatarfja

Probably an out of town visitor, pocketing a ticket and not bothering to find out if he/she won.....because most of the time they dont...

LottoBuddy's avatarLottoBuddy

The $28.5 million unclaimed jackpot should be returned to the prize pot.  It should be illegal for the California Lottery to take the players' money away and put it "into the public schools pot."  Millions of people spent milions of dollars trying to win that jackpot and it would be a gigantic rip-off if it didn't end up with lottery players.

A winning ticket bought in Brantford, Ontario is about to expire in April.  The $30 million jackpot in TAX-FREE CASH is both the largest single win and unclaimed jackpot ever in Canada.  But instead of ripping off previous players like California, the unclaimed prize will be returned to players in the form of bonus jackpots or promotions.

starchild_45's avatarstarchild_45

my ticket expired a while back. i got mine in southern cali and wish it was mine. i remember seeing a story about that before. unfortunately it won't be mine. so sad am i.

RJOh's avatarRJOh

Reminds me of a dog I once had.  He loved to chase cars, but he really had no ideas about what he was going to do if he ever caught one.  I'm surprised at the number of people who play the lottery that don't care about which numbers they play (QPs) or care enough to check those tickets unless they hear the big winner is in their area, they just want to be in the game.  Even if they hear or read the winning numbers, they have no idea if they are the numbers they played.

RJOh

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