LUCKY ESCAPE
I won 500k on the lottery and didn’t know for days – I even left the ticket in a place where it could be easily lost
See some of the biggest lottery wins
A DRIVER made a shocking discovery on the passenger seat of his car after finding he had been carrying around half a million dollars.
Luck was on the side of the man from the Columbia, South Carolina area not once but twice.
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A little-known rule would have meant he instantly lost the cash if he hadn't found it when he did.
On Thursday, the man discovered that he won the lottery after finding his scratch card on the passenger seat of his car.
Two days before he made the discovery, the unidentified winner scooped $500,000 according to the South Carolina Education Lottery.
The winner scratched the card and cast his ticket aside before realizing later it was a huge winner.
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Upon discovering that he was thousands of dollars richer, the winner immediately went to cash it in.
"I'm going to spend it wisely," he told lottery officials.
"It will enhance my life."
Meanwhile, The Country Peddler store that sold him the ticket received a $5,000 prize.
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Following the driver's win, there are now four top prizes of $500,000 left in the 100X The Cash game.
Winners of the top prize have to beat the odds of one in 960,000.
Theodorus Struyck who won $1.7B lottery jackpot is 'no Edwin Castro' as seller bags $1m but is back at work next day
However, the lottery winner was lucky to find his scratch card when he did as winning tickets can expire.
"Prizes must be claimed on or before the last day to claim a prize as noted at the top of the page," the South Carolina Education Lottery website states.
"Players have 90 days after the official end of a scratch-off game to redeem a ticket."
Lottery players in California have been urged to check their lottery tickets after a $1.7 million jackpot is currently unclaimed.
Top five biggest lottery winners
Lottery winners lives can change overnight if they come up trumps on the game of chance. The U.S. Sun takes a look at the five largest jackpots that have been won.
- Edwin Castro won $2.04 billion on the Powerball in a draw dating back to November 2022. He opted to take the lump sum, which meant his prize was cut to $997.6 million.
- A group of winners bought a Powerball ticket worth $1.765 billion in October 2023 and Theodorus Struyck was named as their representative.
- A Mega Millions prize worth $1.6 billion was claimed in Florida in December 2023. The ticket was bought at a Publix store in Neptune Beach and the draw dated back to August 2023. The winner was identified as Saltines Holdings LLC.
- Three Powerball-winning tickets worth $1.586 billion were sold at stores in California, Tennessee, and Melbourne Beach, Florida, ahead of a draw in January 2016.
- One player scooped a whopping $1.537 billion in October 2018 after playing the Mega Millions in Simpsonville, South Carolina.
The Mega Millions winner matched all five numbers from the draw but missed the Mega number.
According to the California Lottery, the ticket is worth $1,748.612.
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It was purchased from Linchine's Liquor & Deli in Sacramento so players who have recently bought tickets from there need to search their pockets now!
The countdown for the 180 days to claim it before the prize expires is already on.