A 76-year-old woman from Pennsylvania realized that she left a lottery ticket in a jacket she donated to charity. And it wasn’t just any lottery ticket, it was a winning one that would have added a whopping $2.5M to her net worth.
She had given a jacket away to charity
Mildred Simoneriluto, 76, was doing her part donating to charity and gave away a bunch of her clothing to the Vietnam Veterans of America, an organization that conducts outreach programs and services to American veterans.
Mildred later realized she had a winning ticket
One day Mildred realized that a lottery ticket she had bought from a grocery store in Murrysville in May 2024, two weeks prior to donating the clothes, was a winning ticket.
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While the woman had forgotten about the clothes she donated last year, she realized she might have turned her back on something valuable.
She remembered the location of the ticket
After racking her brain on where the ticket could be, she remembered she had left it in one of the pockets of a jacket among the clothes she had donated to the Vietnam Veterans of America.
Now Mildred has missed out on a life-changing amount of money, $2.5 million to be exact.
The ticket could be anywhere in the world
Of course, Mildred would be unable to reclaim the ticket now with the jacket long gone.
The Vietnam Veterans of America give away clothes to countries across the globe, so the ticket could be anywhere in the world by now.
Mildred shared the experience in an interview
“I was stupefied,” Mildred said in an interview with 6abc Philadelphia, describing how she felt about the situation.
“I was- there’s no words for it. It was like beyond expression – ‘how can I get it back?’,” she said, adding that she had put the slip in the jacket pocket as a way of keeping it safe, but forgot about it before donating the jacket.
She remembers the numbers but it’s not enough
Although Mildred said she remembers the numbers on her winning lottery ticket being 14, 22, 33, 35, and 38, she still can’t claim her jackpot prize.
Lottery officials in Pennsylvania told her she has to have the physical slip in order to claim her win.
Mildred is on a tight deadline
The deadline to claim the cash prize is May 8, and with the jacket being out of reach and the prize requiring the physical ticket to claim, Mildred is in a tight spot.
In an effort to fix the situation, she has since gone back to the grocery store where she first purchased the ticket, but it was no use.
One can only hope for good things in the future
With the grocery store employees unable to help her and the lottery officials saying she needs the physical paper, it seems Mildred has missed out on a chance at being a millionaire.
But one can only hope that good karma will reach her, as this all came about because of the good deed of donating to charity.