PENDLETON, Ky. — Someone out there is walking around with a winning lottery ticket worth $1 million that's about to expire, according to the Kentucky Lottery.
The ticket was bought at a Henry County Pilot Travel Center on July 19 — and it still hasn't been claimed.
The Kentucky Lottery said the ticket is set to expire in mid-January and must be claimed before then.
"It's rare that someone holding a $1 million Powerball ticket fails to cash it in," said Mary Harville, president of the Kentucky Lottery, in a press release. "The ticket is expiring in less than two weeks; however, the Lottery is not giving up hope that we will find the owner and award them their prize."
The ticket officially expires on Jan. 15, but because the Kentucky Lottery will be closed in observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 15, the winner will need to cash it in sooner. It must be taken to the lottery's corporate offices in Louisville by 5 p.m. on Jan. 12.
The winning ticket was specifically sold at the Pilot on Pendleton Road in Pendleton, Ky., which is located in Henry County just northeast of Louisville.
The lottery said the winning ticket matched the first five white balls — 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 — which earned them the second-place prize of $1 million. The ticket fell just short of winning the $1 billion jackpot because it did not match the Powerball, which was 24.
If the purchaser of the ticket does not come forward and claim their winnings, the money will be returned to the state's Unclaimed Prize Fund, which was created to support the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship.
