The Winner Was Unaware of His Luck
Claimed the Prize Money Only After a Belated Discovery
In Germany, a man discovered a forgotten lottery ticket he had purchased six months earlier and ended up winning a prize worth over 25 billion won.
On September 29 (local time), AFP reported that a man who bought a Lotto Hessen ticket in the Frankfurt region of Germany had won 15.3 million euros (25,229,080,000 won). Lotto Hessen had conducted a large-scale campaign throughout the spring and summer to find the winner, but the man was unaware that he had won the lottery.
He discovered his win when the weather turned chilly and he put on a jacket he had not worn since March. According to a press release from Lotto Hessen, "The man found the folded ticket in the inside pocket of his jacket."
The man said, "I checked the numbers on my phone and was completely shocked when I saw the prize amount," adding, "I'm glad I was sitting down; otherwise, my legs would have given out."
He confessed that he had heard about the campaign to find the winner but never imagined he could be the one. He said, "When I heard about it on the radio, I thought, 'How could someone not claim such a prize? How foolish.' I never once thought I could be the winner."
As for his future plans, he said, "First, I want to buy a sofa for the living room," and added, "The rest of the prize money will be used with my wife for our children." He went on to say, "My wife and I have sworn not to tell anyone else about this news."
In Korea, a 3 billion won Lotto first prize remains unclaimed
Cases where lottery prizes go unclaimed are also occurring in Korea. Lottery operator Donghaeng Lottery reported that, among the nine first-prize winners in the 1,145th Lotto draw held on November 9 last year, one person did not claim their prize.
The prize money is 3,051,630,000 won. If the winner does not claim it by the 10th of next month, the entire amount will be reverted to the lottery fund. The payout period is one year from the draw date; after that, the prize is not paid to individuals and is instead used for public projects such as housing support for low-income families, scholarship programs, and cultural heritage protection.
The winning ticket was purchased automatically at the Hana Lottery store on Guwol-ro, Namdong-gu, Incheon, with the winning numbers '2, 11, 31, 33, 37, 44'. The second prize for the same draw, about 72.65 million won, also remains unclaimed and was sold in North Gyeongsang Province.
In the past five years (2020-2024), there have been 30,760,000 unclaimed Lotto prizes in Korea, totaling 228.3 billion won. Among these, the most common are unclaimed fifth prizes (5,000 won each), with a total of 15.07 million won returned to the lottery fund.
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