Colorado man claims $25,000 yearly lotto prize two days before expiration

DENVER (UPI) — A Colorado man turned in a winning lottery ticket with a prize of $25,000 a year for life just two days before it was set to expire.

The Colorado Lottery posted a photo on Facebook announcing the “missing” winner had come forward and encouraging players to check their tickets after the winner was mistaken about the extent of his winnings.

“Get this — he thought he had won a $5,000 prize until about a week ago that he realized his ticket was worth $25,000 a year FOR LIFE,” the lottery said.

If the winner had not claimed the ticket by its expiration date on March 6, the money would have been returned to the prize pool.

The Lucky For Life game is a national lottery game played by selecting five numbers out of 48 and one number from 18 for Lucky ball.

Each ticket purchased is entered into a nationwide pool with a top prize of $1,000 a day for life with the second prize offering $25,000 every year.

A second person in Colorado won the second prize last week.

“Colorado has had 14 of the second-prize winners since we joined the game in July 2016,” Colorado Lottery communication manager Meghan Dougherty said. “Colorado has not yet had a 1st-prize winner in this game but our fingers are crossed!”

Reporting by Daniel Uria

United Press International

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United Press International is an international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the 20th century.

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