Unlucky Player Literally Flushes $26m Down The Drain From California Lottery

Last updated on December 27th, 2023

An anonymous player from Sacramento, California reportedly lost the winning lottery ticket worth $26m. Yes, you read that right. More specifically, as Midnight struck on Thursday the 13th of May, so did the deadline for claiming the funds. What baffles officials is why no one came to claim the $26m lost lottery ticket. The winning ticket was purchased in November 2020, specifically for the 14th of November draw.

Ever since then, right until the deadline, no one officially came to withdraw the winnings. Not even in the 180 days that players usually have to claim the prize. This encouraged the California Lottery to start a state-wide search in an attempt to find the ‘lucky’ player who won the main prize. However, this seems to be easier said than done. The winning numbers for the lottery were 12, 13, 23, 31, 36 and the Mega Number 10.

Furthermore, the winning lottery ticket was purchased at an ARCO AM/PM store in Los Angeles County. And what is interesting is that we already have certain people who tried to claim the ticket. One of the most believable cases is from a woman who says she purchased the ticket in the Norwalk area ARCO store. The employees said that the woman said that the ticket was unintentionally destroyed when she was doing the laundry.

Surveillance video shows that the woman indeed purchased the lottery ticket from that specific store. However, it seems that is not enough. California Lottery official gave a statement on CNN, where he says that the surveillance footage isn’t enough to determine that it is the $26m ticket.

Moreover, when asked by the press, lottery officials gave the following statement:

According to the lottery, there are a couple of ways for people with large prizes, as in those valued at more than $600, to claim them. Besides mailing in the ticket and claim form, ticket holders can visit any of the lottery’s nine district offices.

California Lottery Official

Have in mind that the California Lottery suggests you take a picture with the winning ticket, specifically from both sides. This is one of the best ways for you to have proof that you are the actual winner.

However, this is not the biggest lottery win that no one came to claim in the USA. For example, the biggest unclaimed prize was the crazy $77m Powerball Jackpot in June of 2011. The winning lottery ticket was purchased in the state of Georgia. Yet, no one seemed to come and claim the ticket even after six months. Moreover, there was a case when two guys tried to claim the $63m SuperLotto Plus jackpot. This was back in August 2015, but unfortunately for them, all their efforts to prove the ownership of the ticket were denied.

You could say that this is very unfortunate, but there are certain benefits as well. One is that all unclaimed winnings from the California Lottery are donated to the California Public School program. And ever since the Lottery began offering games about 30+ years ago, it has already given out more than $1b in unclaimed prizes to schools throughout California. Even the ARCO AM/PM store that sold the winning ticket gets something. They still get their hefty $130.000 bonus for selling the ticket.

Now, all we can do is wait and see how this drama will unfold. And will anyone come to officially claim the crazy $26m lost lottery ticket, and claim the money ‘waiting’ in the California Lottery Offices.