Illinois woman wins $1 million lottery prize with forgotten ticket

An Illinois woman decided to buy a lottery ticket while shopping, but then forgot about it when she checked the numbers and was stunned to find she had a big win.

According to the Illinois Lottery, the woman, who wished to remain anonymous, was shopping at a Jewel-Osco grocery store in Elmhurst on Oct. 20.

“On the way to my aunt’s house, I made a quick stop at Jewel’s to pick up some groceries and before heading out the door I quickly grabbed a Lucky Day lottery ticket,” she told lottery officials. She put the ticket in her purse and “forgot everything.”

The woman revealed that it was a few days before she actually realized she had won – she found the ticket at the bottom of her handbag. She told officers that they opened her lottery app, scanned her ticket and checked to see if “it was a winner.”

“I immediately saw ‘$1,000,000’ on the screen and was completely shocked,” she continued. “I scanned the ticket again to double check and when it said ‘$1,000,000’ again I immediately started crying. I thought, ‘This is incredible.'”

She matched all five numbers of the Lucky Day Lotto winning numbers: 2-3-24-25-28. He is the ninth Illinois lottery player this year to win $1 million or more on Lucky Day Lotto, officials said.

Now she has big plans for the prize money, including a trip abroad.

“What makes me most happy is that I can afford annual trips to my favorite place in the world: Ireland,” the woman told officials. “The scenery is breathtaking and I’m thrilled that I can now look forward to it.” Traveling every year.