If this story is true, a lucky California woman just took herself to the cleaners and has become the unluckiest woman in the Golden State.
Several weeks ago I posted about the sale of a $1,800,000 lottery ticket in my own San Francisco neighborhood. (4.21.2021 –Someone is happy in San Francisco $1.8MM lottery ticket. Where’s the winner?)
Now we have a pricier and sadder lottery tale. A woman bought a California lottery ticket six months ago, left the ticket in her pants and ran it through the wash).
Talk about Down the Drain.
The Guardian 5.14.2021
The winner of a $26m California lottery prize may have literally washed the chance of a fortune down the drain.The winning SuperLotto Plus ticket for the 14 November drawing was sold at an Arco AM/PM convenience store in the Los Angeles suburb of Norwalk. Thursday was the last day to redeem it.
Nobody did.
Four prizes of $20m or more haven’t been claimed since 1997, including a $63m prize from 2015, a lottery spokesman, Jorge De La Cruz, told the Los Angeles Times.
Store employee Esperanza Hernandez told the Whittier Daily News that a woman came in on Wednesday and told workers that she had put the ticket in her pants and it was destroyed in the laundry.
The store’s manager told KTLA-TV that surveillance video showed the woman who bought the ticket, and she is known to store workers.
A copy of the surveillance video was turned over to California lottery officials, the manager said.
The claim will be investigated, a lottery spokeswoman, Cathy Johnston, said.
Lottery officials say someone who believes he or she is a winner must complete a claim form. But if someone loses a ticket, they must provide evidence that they owned it, such as a photograph of the front and back of the ticket, the officials said.
The winning numbers were: 23, 36, 12, 31, 13, with the mega number of 10. The $26m prize can be taken in annual installments or as a $19.7m cash option.
If the prize isn’t claimed, the $19.7m will go to California public schools.
The store that sold the ticket will receive a $130,000 bonus.
It’s uncommon for large jackpots to go unclaimed, officials said.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/14/california-lottery-ticket-winner-laundry
Lee's Perspective 