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A6 U.S. NEWS
Monday 25 February 2019
Unclaimed $1.5B jackpot mystery: Winner died? Ticket lost?

By JEFFREY COLLINS and won't receive his $50,000
REBECCA SANTANA bonus if the ticket isn't
SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. (AP) claimed.
— Nearly everyone in this But Patel said the store
small South Carolina town got a big boost in sales in
has a theory for the city's the weeks after selling the
billion-dollar mystery: Who winning ticket and still gets
won the $1.5 billion Mega people who think the luck
Millions jackpot announced will rub off on them. That's
last October? why the half-dozen signs
Maybe the winner was so saying "WE SOLD A WIN-
overwhelmed upon seeing NING MEGA MILLIONS TICK-
the winning numbers that ET WORTH $1.5 BILLION" will
she or he died on the spot? stay up, Patel said.
Maybe the winner is on the Jackpots, even big ones,
run from police and fears a have gone unclaimed be-
background check? May- fore. But this one dwarfs
be that winning ticket fell them all.
from a car visor, ended up Gordon Medenica, lead
in a trash can and is forever director for the Mega Mil-
buried at the Twin Chim- lions consortium, said the
neys Landfill. Or maybe, biggest Mega Millions jack-
the winner is still going on pot to go unclaimed was
with life as usual, before Associated Press a $68 million prize in 2002.
quietly taking the $878 mil- With less than two months Whoever won the second he checked his numbers That ticket was sold in New
lion lump sum. to go, the clock is ticking. largest lottery in U.S. history over — and over — again: York. Two winning tickets
has until 5 p.m. on April 19 "I know I checked every were sold for a $103.5 mil-
to walk into the South Caro- ticket I bought. But there's lion jackpot in 2002 but one
lina Lottery office in Colum- that nagging feeling that ticket — sold in Indiana —
bia with the signed ticket maybe I didn't check every was never claimed, said
and claim the jackpot. one." Wendy Ahlm with the New
The winning ticket was sold As with all great myster- Mexico lottery that current-
at the KC Mart in Simpson- ies, there are some far out ly oversees Powerball.
ville sometime between conspiracy theories. Chris States differ in how long
Oct. 20 and the drawing Watson prepares hot dogs players have to claim their
at 11 p.m. on Oct. 23. Store and hamburgers at the KC prizes. Medenica said he
employee Jee Patel said Mart's grill. He wonders if wouldn't expect someone
State Law Enforcement Mega Millions ever planned to come forward immedi-
Division agents were wait- to award the jackpot at all, ately. Winners often first get
ing in the parking lot when instead using it as an ex- legal and financial advice,
workers came to open at 6 cuse to sell more tickets. and he'd heard theories
a.m. the next day. "What I don't understand is that the winner was waiting
"We didn't even know we why does the money have until 2019 for tax reasons.
sold the winner yet," Patel to go back? Why can't And in South Carolina, as
said, adding agents im- they just use it for another in a handful of other states,
mediately took the surveil- jackpot?" Watson said. winners can remain anony-
lance tapes away. "We If the ticket goes un- mous, avoiding publicity.
haven't seen them. I don't claimed, the $1.5 billion "Now we're sort of running
know when we sold it or prize will be redistributed to out of reasons on why any-
who we sold it to." the 44 states along with the one would wait this long,"
Simpsonville is a rapidly U.S. Virgin Islands and the he said.
growing suburb of about District of Columbia. One But there have been waits
22,000 people south of big loser could be South in the past for winners to
Greenville. The store is away Carolina, which had bud- step forward.
from the suburban core on geted a $61 million income The biggest jackpot in U.S.
a two-lane road past the tax windfall from the win- history, a $1.586 billion Pow-
four-way stop and several ner but had to remove that erball prize, was won on
recently constructed sub- estimate — about 0.5 per- Jan. 13, 2016, by buyers in
divisions. Everyone enter- cent of the state's annual California, Tennessee and
ing the store on a recent spending plan. Florida. The California win-
cold winter day figured the Every taxpayer in South ners didn't come forward
winning ticket was sold to Carolina could have a din- until about six months later,
someone living or working ner out on the line. A law- officials said.
nearby. maker has placed a pro- "The larger the prize the
Christian Porchak lives a posal in the state budget longer it takes," said Russ
mile from the KC Mart, that would give up to a $50 Lopez, from the California
where he bought tickets rebate to each person who Lottery. "That's an amazing
for the big drawing. He files income taxes — but amount of money. Their life
felt a brief rush when he only if the state gets its tax- is going to change."
heard it sold the winner. es from the lottery winner. Back in Simpsonville, theo-
Just as quickly, though, Another big loser would ries continue to swirl. Lloyd
his hopes were dashed as be the store's owner, who Hall cuts hair in town. q