A nearly expired NJ Lottery ticket worth $5.9 million found in man’s pants pocket

🔎 A New Jersey Lottery player nearly lost a $5.9 million jackpot after forgetting the winning Pick-6 ticket in a pants pocket for almost a year.

💰 The Roseland-winning ticket was discovered crumpled up just days before the May 22 expiration deadline, stunning lottery officials and store employees alike.

🎟️ The winning ticket was sold at an Exxon station in Essex County.

ROSELAND — A nearly $6 million Pick-6 New Jersey Lottery ticket has finally been claimed—just 8 days before it was set to expire and become worthless.

The winner told NJ Lottery officials he found the ticket crumpled up in one of his pants pockets after forgetting about it for almost a year.

Unclaimed $5.9 million NJ Lottery ticket nearly expired

The man said he heard an announcement made last month that this ticket, which was sold at the Eisenhower Exxon in Roseland, was unclaimed and at risk of expiring. Well, that’s where the man buys his lottery tickets.

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So, he decided to talk to the employees at the store. While they didn’t know for sure who the winner was, they knew that only a few of their regular players opted for Pick-6 as their game of choice.

They told the man to go home and double-check everything. So, he did.

Roseland lottery player finds winning ticket in pants pocket

The player told state lottery officials he searched every corner of every room of his house, looked in every spot he may have missed. He checked every pocket of every pair of pants in his closet. Finally, he found a crumpled Pick-6 ticket that was purchased last May.

Bingo! It was confirmed to be the $5.9 million winning ticket. The man immediately brought it to the New Jersey Lottery office on Thursday, May 14. The ticket was set to expire on May 22.

Now, that’s lucky.

NJ Lottery urges players to check old tickets

New Jersey Lottery officials remind players to always check their tickets. While jackpot prizes going unclaimed is rare, many small tickets sit unclaimed in drawers and pockets for months, even years, when they could be redeemed for cash.

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