A Farmington man yesterday claimed a $200,000 Powerball® prize six days before the ticket’s expiration date.
Timothy Padilla had the valuable ticket from the Aug. 15 drawing “in a pile of papers.”
“I always buy a Powerball ticket for Wednesday and Saturday and put it on the kitchen counter,” Padilla said. “Then I never check the tickets.”
After reading a Friday newspaper story about a soon-to-expire Powerball prize, Padilla’s wife, Marguerite, grabbed the stack of old tickets and discovered the prize-winner. She called her husband at work.
“I said, ‘Come home now. You won the lottery,’” Marguerite recalled.
When the 37-year-old UPS manager returned home, the couple went to the New Mexico Lottery’s website to confirm the winning numbers of 19, 22, 24, 38 and 51. The ticket missed the red Powerball number of 9, which would have won the Aug. 15 jackpot of $183.7 million.
The couple then debated about what to do next. Marguerite wanted to leave immediately for lottery headquarters in Albuquerque. Tim wanted to keep their weekend plans.
“Not even a winning Powerball ticket could stop an elk hunting trip,” he said. “We had just enough time to do both things.”
The winning ticket was set to expire on Nov. 13 at 4:30 p.m. All prizes for lotto-style games must be claimed within 90 calendar days of the draw date otherwise the money is returned to the prize pool for future New Mexico Lottery games.
Padilla, whose sister Jessica attends the University of New Mexico on a Legislative Lottery scholarship, said he plans to invest his down-to-the-wire windfall.
The winning quick pick ticket was purchased at the Giant store located at 5501 E. Main St. in Farmington. The lottery retailer has sold 13 other large prize-winning tickets ranging between $1,000 and $10,000.
Legislative Lottery Scholarships
Since its inception in 1996, the New Mexico Lottery has raised $331 million for public education and more than 48,000 students have received their in-state college tuition paid by the Legislative Lottery Scholarship program. As of the Spring 2007 semester, more than 2,500 students from San Juan County have received $7.5 million in scholarships. Nearly 1,100 of those students have graduated from college.
Information on Legislative Lottery Scholarships is available at
www.nmlottery.com
