A US Mega Millions player from Manassas, West Virginia, was sitting on a winning ticket for nearly five months and never realized it until he decided to do a spot of spring cleaning.
Scott Murillos found the forgotten ticket towards the end of last month when he was cleaning out some old papers and was surprised to discover he'd successfully matched five of the numbers drawn on October 8, 2013.
"It's something I never thought I’d get," Murillos said as he claimed his $250,000 prize at the Virginia Lottery headquarters.
The rules governing the Mega Millions draw have recently changed. Under the new rules players who match 5 numbers receive $1 million, but as Murillos' ticket was purchased when the old rules still applied his prize was calculated according to the rules in force at the time of the draw.
The next Mega Millions draw is on Tuesday, March 11, and has an estimated jackpot of $309 million.
