Win $8.9 million from a forgotten lottery ticket

Nearly three months after buying a lottery ticket and quickly forgetting about it, Wilbur Brown (a man from Oregon, USA) is now a millionaire.

Last Christmas, Wilbur Brown bought a Megabucks “25 USD for 26 draws” lottery ticket at a store in Springfield, Oregon. The lottery ticket allows him to participate in 26 consecutive draws with only USD 25, meaning Brown can participate until the draw on February 19, 2022.

However, after only a few weeks, he forgot the ticket he had bought. 

“I just checked the results for the first few draws, and of course, I didn’t win,” Brown said. 

“After that, I forgot about it and didn’t see the results of the following draws anymore.”

Luckily in February, Brown went back to the store where he bought the lottery and casually gave the cashier a scan of his ticket. He received the message “Player won the grand prize”. Brown and his friends immediately checked and discovered that he had won an $8.9 million jackpot.

Brown’s lucky numbers are 15, 33, 34, 40, 42, and 47.

According to the Oregon State Lottery, Brown chose to receive more than $200,000 annually for 30 years instead of receiving all money at once. The odds of winning this jackpot are just 1 / 6,135,756. The store that sold Brown the ticket also received a retailer bonus of $89,000, or 1% of the jackpot.

In the US recently, there was a similar case, accidentally discovered winning the lottery.

Laura Spears from Oakland County, Michigan, discovered she won $3 million when she checked her spam emails.

Accordingly, Mrs. Spears, 55 years old, purchased a Mega Millions lottery ticket on the Michigan State Lottery website for the December 31, 2021 draw. Her ticket has five numbers to win $1 million and tripled the prize with the Megaplier feature.