Unclaimed Powerball Ticket Worth $1.5 Million Set to Expire: 'Time Is Running Out'
If nobody comes forward, the winning ticket, which was purchased in California last October, will expire on April 24
Someone in California is the winner of a $1.5 million lottery prize, and they may not even know it.
The California Lottery announced on Tuesday that "time is running out" to claim the prize, which is set to expire next week.
"Days have turned into weeks, weeks have turned into months, and the California Lottery is still waiting for the player who bought a wining Powerball ticket in Los Gatos this past October to come forward," lottery officials wrote in a news release.
The winning ticket, which was drawn on October 26, 2022, is due to expire on April 24. It has the numbers 19-36-37-46-56, only missing the Powerball number.
The lucky mystery ticket has been traced back to a purchase at the Mobil gas station at 15380 Los Gatos Blvd. in Los Gatos (Santa Clara County), according to lottery officials.
"The winning ticket was one of two that matched five numbers, missing only the Powerball number, in the draw on Wednesday, October 26, 2022," officials wrote, adding that the other winning ticket has already been claimed.
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Anyone who may have purchased a ticket for the drawing is encouraged to "search their car, junk drawer, wallet, or any other place they stash their tickets to see if they have the one."
"At this point, there is no way of knowing if it was a local resident who bought the lucky Powerball ticket, or if it was someone just passing through," lottery officials added.
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California Powerball winners only have 180 days to claim their prize, according to their website.
If the money isn't claimed, it will join the mass of other unclaimed ticket winnings — which ultimately goes toward funding public education throughout the state, per the site, which notes that the California Lottery has given state public schools "more than $41 billion since we began in 1985."
Though most people who win the lottery do successfully come forward to claim their prizes, there are exceptions. According to a CNN article published in 2017, five of the then-384 jackpot winners of Powerball and MegaMillions games have failed to claim their prizes since 2003.
Related:2 Winners Come Forward to Claim $1.3 Billion Mega Millions Jackpot Nearly 8 Weeks After Drawing
Of course, it's not too late to claim the winnings.
Lottery officials say that if anybody believes they have the winning ticket "they should sign the back of that ticket!"
"Then, get it to one of the Lottery's nine offices throughout the state and complete the official claim form," they wrote, noting that you can also submit it online.
However, no mater what, officials say the ticket "needs to be postmarked or claimed in person" by Monday.
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