Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Procrastinating Lottery Winner Finally Claims $46 Million

Aired June 15, 2001 - 14:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Imagine going through your things at home and finding an old lottery ticket. Then imagine finding out that it's a winner; you never have to worry about money again. That's what happened in New Jersey, where the big game lottery has found it's long-lost winner. Melvin Milligan stepped forward today to claim the $46 million prize, but only after he sent the ticket on a little postal oddysey.

CNN's Jason Carroll has his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the miltimillion-dollar mystery is over: We now know who the big game winner is. His name is Melvin Milligan. He is from Passaic, New Jersey. He's married to his wife, Kim; he is 40 years old. And we found out how this whole thing happened.

He told us that he was sitting down with his wife, watching TV news reports about his unclaimed $46 million ticket. He decided he would check one of his own tickets. It turns out it was in a junk drawer. Once he found that ticket, he described what he did next.

MELVIN MILLIGAN, LOTTERY WINNER: I found the lone ticket; just one ticket. And I put the in my pocket, went to work, didn't think anything else of the ticket. I still had it. The only thing I looked at was the date.

I drove around all day, doing my calls and stuff like that, working. And at, like, 7:30 it dawned on me that I had this ticket in my pocket. So I go into the lottery agent, the store and I had the guy validate it for me. And he did; and he looks at me and says, you're the guy who -- you know, you're the one.

CARROLL: And after that ticket was validated, Melvin did something that a lot of the people consider to be very strange: He mailed it. He didn't send it certified mail or registered mail, he simply dropped it in a mailbox.

Once he told his wife that that's what he did, his wife said, What are you crazy? You should have called someone, you should have done something other than just mail it.

But Melvin said he felt as though everything was going to be all right, and it is. He is the $46 million winner. He says he's going to use some of that money to take care of his family and possibly buy a new house.

Jason Carroll, CNN, Newark, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com