Seattle Couple Realizes After Three Months They’ve Got A $1M Powerball Ticket

(Lisa Brewster)

You know how they say, “You can’t win if you don’t play?” That’s true, but you also can’t really win unless you remember to check your ticket. That was the case for a Seattle couple who bought a Powerball ticket, left it in the car for months and then decided to check it after all. Turns out they’d won $1 million.

Officials with the Washington Lottery say the Powerball ticket sat in the couple’s car for three months — including during a break-in where a thief stole a pair of sunglasses sitting on top of the ticket, but left the winning paper behind — before they thought to check if they’d won anything.

They’d already lost out on the $350 million jackpot drawing in February, but hadn’t explored other possibilities.

“We didn’t even think about a second chance prize,” the couple told the Washington Lottery, saying the ticket could’ve been lost entirely.

They just recently checked the ticket online and realized they were winners after all. The store where they bought the ticket will win too — a $10,000 selling bonus.

The couple now plans on planning trips to Paris and Iceland, as well as taking care of their house. Everyone else is planning on double-checking all old tickets stuffed in odd places around the house/in wallets/under the car seat.