What to Know
- The ticket was from the May 25, 2016 New York Lottery drawing
- It was sold at Renu Corp Grocery & Tobacco on Church Street in Tribeca
- It will expire at the end of the day May 25 unless someone redeems it before then
Next time someone criticizes you for saving old papers, tell them the story of the guy who found the $24 million lottery ticket with only three days to spare.
A winning ticket sold last year in Tribeca was due to expire on Thursday, and the New York Lottery has been pleading with the public over the last week to try and find the winner before it was too late.
With the clock ticking, the as-yet unnamed winner appeared at a lottery office in lower Manhattan on Monday to claim the prize, officials said Wednesday.
News coverage of the expiring prize apparently prompted the winner to rifle through a collection old tickets. Had the winner not surfaced, the ticket would have lapsed at the end of the day Thursday, sending the prize money back to the larger pool.
Unclaimed lottery prizes are not uncommon, though it is relatively rare for a prize this big to slip through someone's clutches. Earlier this year, New Jersey officials flagged an expiring $1 million ticket.
