A 76-year-old Pennsylvania woman is devastated after realizing she accidentally gave away her $2.5 million lottery ticket.
Mildred Simoneriluto had tucked the winning Cash 5 ticket into the pocket of a denim jacket, thinking it was a safe place. Later, she unknowingly donated the jacket to Goodwill.
“I remember saying, ‘If I put it here, I won’t forget it,’” she told WTAE. But by the time she realized her mistake, it was too late.
But she did forget. The jacket, along with other donated items, ended up with the Vietnam Veterans of America.
From there, it was picked up by a service called Pickup Please and could now be anywhere in the world.
To make matters worse, the Pennsylvania Lottery requires the physical ticket to claim the prize, meaning Mildred’s millions are out of reach. Desperate, she returned to Stop N’ Save, where she bought the ticket, hoping for a solution – but had no luck.
“I went back to Stop N’ Save maybe a hundred times,” she said. “And they said there was nothing they could do.”
The winning ticket, with numbers 14, 22, 33, 35, and 38, is set to expire on May 8.
Despite the odds, Simoneriluto is still holding on to hope that she’ll find both the ticket and the jacket before time runs out.
Since Pennsylvania allows anyone with the ticket to claim the prize, Simoneriluto risks losing her jackpot to a stranger.
“What else can I do? Cry out loud and hope that something will happen,” she told WTAE, still in disbelief over her mistake. “There are no words for it. How can I get it back?”
The Vietnam Veterans of America distributes donated clothing across the U.S. and worldwide, making the jacket and the ticket nearly impossible to track down.
Daily Mail reported that in December, a California resident named Faramarz Lahijani sued the state lottery last year after losing one of his winning Mega Millions tickets.
He had purchased two tickets at a gas station in Encino and managed to claim half of his prize in June. But when he realized the second ticket was missing, he hurried to submit a claim on December 4, just days before it expired.
The winning numbers from the draw were 21, 26, 53, 66, 70, and Mega Ball 13.
California Lottery officials have stated that the tickets with matching numbers could only have been purchased in separate transactions.
Lahijani’s lawsuit is seeking the remaining $197 million of the jackpot from the December 2023 draw, claiming there is enough proof to show he bought both winning tickets.
If someone else claims the prize, they have until Saturday to do so. But if the ticket expires or Lahijani’s lawsuit doesn’t go through, the money will go to California’s public education fund.
Source: Daily Mail – WTAE
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