Midnight deadline for $7 million Cash4Life winner to redeem ticket
The New York Lottery logo. Credit: New York Lottery
11:59:59 p.m. Friday.
That's when time runs out for the "missing millionaire" who won $7 million playing Cash4Life, New York lottery officials said.
The winning ticket -- 5, 20, 35, 43, 48 with a Cash Ball number 3 -- was sold at the Milky Way Deli on Ralph Avenue in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn on July 24, 2014, officials said. Winners have one year to claim their prize -- or forfeit it.
"I think a lot of people feel the same way -- anxious for that person," said Carolyn Hapeman, a spokeswoman for the New York Lottery.
The ticket holder has one second before midnight to claim the prize.
The lottery's customer centers closed 4:30 p.m., but the winner could submit the ticket at video gaming centers, which close at 10 p.m., Hapeman said.
After that, the winner can mail the ticket to the New York Lottery but must have it postmarked Friday at a post office or at a business, such a Federal Express, that can stamp Friday on it, she said.
In an effort to find the winner lottery officials canvassed the East Flatbush-Flatlands-Canarsie area surrounding the store, blanketing it with fliers that read: "Have You Seen Me?" and "Is This You?" But, so far, those efforts have all been in vain.
"This is the absolutely last chance to find the winner of this $7,000,000 jackpot prize," acting director of the Division of the Lottery, Gardner Gurney, said in a statement.
"This is a last-call to all players: check and double-check your tickets one last time before it is too late."
There have been way bigger unclaimed jackpots, lottery officials said. In the Mega Millions game, for example, players didn't redeem $63 million in 2002, $46 million in 2003 and $31 million in 2006, Hapeman said.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
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