In Germany, a man found a lottery ticket in his coat pocket that he had purchased six months ago but had forgotten about, and he ended up winning a huge prize of 15.3 million euros (18 million dollars).
According to reports from Agence France-Presse, the Lotto Hessen company in Germany announced on September 29th that despite previous efforts to find the winner through a search campaign, the man living in the Frankfurt area had been completely unaware of his win over the past few months.
As the weather gradually turned cooler in Germany, the man, who is already a father, recently put on a jacket he hadn’t worn since March and discovered the forgotten lottery ticket in his pocket.
In a statement, the company cited the words of this anonymous man, saying, “It wasn’t until this past weekend that I found the ticket again, folded up and tucked into the inner pocket of my jacket. When I checked the winning numbers on my phone and saw the prize amount, I was extremely shocked. Fortunately, I was sitting down at the time, otherwise my legs would have gone weak.”
He mentioned that he had heard about the company searching for the winner. “When I heard the news on the radio back then, I thought, ‘How could someone be so foolish not to claim their prize?’ I never imagined that the person they were looking for was me.”
When asked how he planned to use this unexpected windfall, the man said he would first buy a new sofa. In addition, he and his wife plan to leave most of the money for their children.
Both of them vowed not to tell anyone about winning the jackpot.
Elsewhere in the United States, a lucky man in Illinois recently chose new lottery numbers using the numbers from an old ticket and ended up winning a $1 million prize, causing his excitement and blood pressure to skyrocket.
The Illinois Lottery company released a press release on their website, stating that the man nicknamed Rex purchased a Powerball ticket at a store in Aurora.
Rex said he usually plays Lotto tickets, but this time he found an old Powerball ticket in a drawer and decided to try the numbers – 3-16-29-61-69 – on the ticket again, leading him to buy a new one. “The jackpot was too high – over $1 billion! I figured I wouldn’t have much chance to win that kind of money.”
However, the morning after the draw on September 3, Rex woke up after drinking his second cup of coffee, remembered to check his ticket, and found that the numbers on his ticket matched the winning numbers exactly, making him the recipient of the $1 million prize.
He said, “I double-checked the ticket, even went back to the store where I bought it to scan it. I hardly slept that night – my blood pressure was through the roof!”
One of the happiest moments for Rex was sharing the good news. “I showed the winning numbers to my spouse, and she couldn’t believe it, immediately saying, ‘Wow, you actually won!'”
Rex has always been passionate about cars throughout his lifetime, a love that dates back to the 1960s. He plans to use the prize money to buy a new car and share thoughtful gifts with family and friends.