Virginia man cleans out wallet, finds lottery ticket worth $1 million

When Robert Manning started cleaning out his wallet because it was getting too fat, he had no idea he would find $1 million stuffed inside. Or at least a Virginia Lottery ticket guaranteeing him that fortune.

The 51-year-old from Springfield, Va., had been sitting on the winning ticket for 11 days. It was among a dozen tickets he packed in his wallet after buying them at a 7-Eleven near his home for the March 5 drawing.

“It feels crazy,” Manning told lottery officials while turning in the ticket. “It feels like there’s nine million things going through my mind.”

Taking weeks to check up on a lottery ticket left on a kitchen counter or in a wallet is “not that uncommon,” said John Hagerty, a spokesman for the Virginia Lottery. Manning faced a 180-day deadline to turn in the winning ticket.

“We’ve seen people come in literally on the last day who didn’t realize it earlier,” Hagerty told The Times. “Tickets do expire, and sometimes there are very large ones that do expire.”

Lottery officials described Manning as a U.S. government employee and said that he had one child in college and another heading to college next year.

Manning would have won $40 million had he successfully guessed the Powerball number of “19” on top of the five regular numbers he did get right.

About $400 million is up for grabs Tuesday night in the Mega Millions lottery. It’s the third-largest jackpot in the game’s history and among the top 10 largest in the U.S. when combining Mega Millions and Powerball games.

The only two larger jackpots were a $648-million prize in December and a $656-million pot in March 2012, according to the Mega Millions website.

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