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We've all misplaced our keys or spent what felt like days searching for a missing item; however, it isn't every day that the thing you misplaced was a winning half-million dollar lottery ticket. That's what happened to one woman in North Carolina who nearly missed out on the $532,234 prize after she misplaced her ticket.
Last September, Ana Maya, of Graham, picked up a Quick Pick ticket for the September 6, 2021 Cash 5 drawing from the Huff's Interstate on Maple Avenue in Burlington. As she was in the process of moving to a new house, she placed her winning ticket in a box to keep it safe. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't find it once she started unpacking, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery.
"These last couple of months have been very stressful trying to find it," she said. "I totally forgot where I put it."
Lottery winners have 180 days to claim their prize, so the March 6 deadline for Maya to collect the prize was quickly approaching. On Tuesday (February 15), she was looking through an old notebook when, at last, she found ticket. She told lottery officials she must have put it there for safekeeping during the move.
"I was very, very relieved when I finally found it," she said. "That was the last place I would have looked."
Maya claimed her prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Wednesday (February 16), bringing home a grand total of $346,005 after taxes. So what does she plan to do now that she finally collected her prize? She told lottery officials she wants to use some of the winnings to pay bills, invest and take a vacation as well as set some aside for her two young children.