A Virginia woman is very glad she thought to check an old lottery ticket recently as she had won $250,000 but only had hours to claim her prize before it expired. Lydia Burke had left a lottery ticket in a napkin holder for six months before checking the numbers. Once she checked them she found she had won $250,000 and had only eight hours before her win expired.

Burke was able to claim her winning check yesterday at 9am. The ticket would have expired at 5pm that evening as it had been 180 days since she had bought the ticket. This past Wednesday Burke saw on the news that the winning ticket had been purchased at the 7-Eleven on Staples Mill Road and it was about to expire.

Burke commented: “I was looking at ‘Oprah’ and after she went off, the news came on talking about a lottery ticket. I remembered buying a few tickets there, so I thought I’d better check.”
Burke had bought five tickets when the jackpot had reached thirty four million and then put them in the napkin holder and forgot about them. Burke screamed when she checked the numbers and found out that she was a winner.

Burke says she will pay off a few bills with her new found winnings and then take her husband on a much needed vacation. It has been six years since Burke and her husband have been on a vacation and they are planning on going to Las Vegas.





- 2009-09-25