June 27 (UPI) -- Lottery players buy their tickets dreaming of the big one, but sometimes even tickets that earn big prizes can end up lost, forgotten or even thrown in the trash.
Here are five times winning lottery tickets with major prizes nearly failed to find their way to a claims center.
In a file container
A Calvert County, Md., man bought a six-board ticket for the July 12, 2024, Bonus Match 5 drawing, but when he thought to check whether it was a winner, he discovered the ticket was nowhere to be found.
He ended up locating the ticket in a file container months later, and discovered one of his lines had scored a $500,000 prize, and another had netted him an additional $400. He was able to claim his prize with just days to spare before it would have expired.
