This 77-year-old Woman Won Rs 99 Crore Lottery In 1991 But Threw Her Ticket in Trash

The lottery is all based on the luck of the person, sometimes the hit-and-trial method makes one a millionaire or even a billionaire. After 31 long years of waiting, a woman from New York has stepped forward to share with local lottery officials that she was the person who never claimed her winning amount of $12 million (Rs 99.74 crore) from a 1991 Lotto Jackpot.

According to USA Today, Janet Valenti revealed that she was the rightful owner of a $12 million New York Lotto jackpot that remained unclaimed for more than 30 years.

The 77-year-old woman made a small mistake which led to the unfortunate fate of the ticket and there was nothing she could do to retrieve it. Janet claimed that in July 1991, she had the winning ticket sitting on an end table next to her couch along with her other tickets. She believed that she checked all the tickets on the table. As she was preparing to leave her home with her two children and mother to spend the weekend at a friend’s house, she threw all the tickets in the trash unaware of the fact that she missed one to check.

Over the weekend, she was unaware of her huge mistake and when she returned, her friend informed her that someone from Staten Island had won a lottery of $12 million Lotto Ticket. Valenti discovered that she had won the lottery by looking at the numbers in the newspaper. Upon arriving home, she rushed to get her ticket from the garbage but couldn’t find it.

“My next-door neighbour, who has never in her life, the whole time I lived there, ever put my garbage out for collection, she did,” Valenti told the Staten Island Advance. She even took legal advice from lawyers but was informed that the only way to claim the prize was with a physical lottery ticket. The surveillance footage from the retailer as evidence was also no use.

She recalled and said that she was a wreck and was sick for a long time over it. On July 17, 1992, the $12 million Lotto jackpot went unclaimed. It was returned to the state lottery fund. The unclaimed prize money to date holds the record for being the largest winning amount in New York’s history.

Janet was a single mother of two teenagers at that time and her husband Bruno died in 1984. She turned to read stories about “lottery curses”, the infamous stories of people whose lives took a turn for the worse after winning the prize money which helped her from losing her mind.

Despite the biggest loss over 30 years ago, Janet remains steadfast in her pursuit of playing the lottery.