Lottery Winner Accidentally Donates Jacket with Winning Ticket
A woman from Pennsylvania is desperately searching for a misplaced lottery ticket worth $2.5 million after realizing she accidentally gave it away with a donated jacket.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:Mildred Simoneriluto, 76, purchased a winning Cash 5 ticket in May 2024 from a grocery store in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. However, two weeks later, upon discovering she had the winning numbers, she realized the ticket was nowhere to be found.
Jacket Donated to Vietnam Veterans of America
Eventually, Simoneriluto realized she had placed the ticket into a jacket pocket for safekeeping, only to later donate that jacket to the Vietnam Veterans of America, a nonprofit that collects goods in support of U.S. veterans.
Speaking to a local news station, she said she was “stupefied; there are no words for it” and was consumed with wondering how to get it back.
Simoneriluto explained that she had intentionally placed the ticket in the jacket to avoid forgetting it, but now the garment and her jackpot ticket are long gone. In a frantic effort to recover the lost ticket, she has revisited multiple local stores, including the one where she originally purchased it more than 100 times.
The situation is increasingly urgent. The Pennsylvania Lottery has informed her that the actual ticket must be submitted by May 8 in order to claim the prize. The winning numbers for that draw were 14, 22, 33, 35, and 38.
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Ticket Could Be Anywhere in the Country
Simoneriluto admits the ticket could now be anywhere in the country, as she doesn’t know where her donated jacket ended up. She’s also aware that someone else might find the ticket and cash it in.
According to the Pennsylvania Lottery, Cash 5 with Quick Cash is unique in that it offers players the chance to win daily jackpots in a lump sum, with no annuity payouts.
Meanwhile, in Texas, another woman is unable to collect her lottery prize, but due to a very different issue. An Austin resident, who has chosen to remain anonymous, used the app Jackpocket to purchase $20 worth of Texas lottery tickets for the February 17 drawing. She hit the $83.5 million jackpot.
Jackpocket is a third-party courier service that lets users purchase lottery tickets and scratch-offs online for a fee. However, just a week after her big win, Texas lottery officials launched an investigation into two high-value prize claims amid concerns of money laundering.
Although the investigation began after her win, the Texas Lottery Commission has frozen the payout. The woman visited the state’s lottery headquarters in Austin last month to collect her prize but was turned away.
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