Man wins huge Powerball prize — but doesn’t realize it until three months later

For nearly three months, a Missouri lottery player held a winning Powerball ticket. But he had no idea.

That’s because the man has a system in place for how often he’ll check his lottery tickets, according to an April 26 news release from the Missouri Lottery.

“I have an alarm set for me to check my tickets every three months,” the man told lottery officials. “So I didn’t know for a while.”

When his alarm finally went off, the man realized he was a big winner.

One of his tickets matched all five of the white balls drawn during the Jan. 2 Powerball drawing, officials said.

“I looked at it, and I’d won $1 million!” he said in the news release.

His wife couldn’t believe how much he won.

“She thought it was a joke,” the man recalled while claiming his prize.

The man, whose name was not released, claimed his prize on March 29 — about 12 weeks after the drawing.

His winning ticket was sold by On the Run convenience store in Rock Hill, part of the St. Louis metropolitan area.

The winner plans to use the prize money to make some home improvements and save for retirement.

This story was originally published April 27, 2023 at 2:19 PM with the headline "Man wins huge Powerball prize — but doesn’t realize it until three months later."