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American Morning

$23 Million Lottery Ticket Mailed to Lottery Officials

Aired June 15, 2001 - 09:01   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with the end of a multimillion dollar mystery. It turns out that someone did hit the jackpot in the Big Game Lottery last June. Three days after New Jersey lottery officials said that no one had claimed the prize, the winning ticket worth 23 million bucks arrived in the mail.

CNN's Jason Carroll is joining us from Newark with details -- good morning, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Donna.

Kind of a strange story, isn't it? Well, let me give you an idea of what happened. Lotto officials came out and said that no one had won the $46 million jackpot. They new someone had bought a winning ticket, but no one came forward to claim it.

Now let me give you a little bit of history of what happened out here in Newark, New Jersey. About a year ago, someone went to a convenience store and purchased that winning ticket. That winning ticket was purchased in Montvale, New Jersey, and that happened on June 9.

Now, if no one comes forward to claim the ticket within a year, then that ticket becomes null and void. So you can imagine why lotto officials thought with the deadline fast approaching why no one had won that particular ticket. But on June 7, the person who had that winning ticket -- actually had a stack of tickets. He went to a lotto agent. They looked through those stack of tickets and discovered that they did, in fact, have this winning ticket.

So what does he do? He doesn't walk it in, he mails it in. He doesn't mail it by registered mail or certified mail. He had obviously a lot of faith in the U.S. postal system and just decided to mail it in just by regular mail. Lotto officials received the winning ticket. They have validated the winning ticket. The person who has won the ticket has decided to go for the cash so he or she will end up getting $23.7 million.

Now just a little bit later on this afternoon, at about 11:30, the acting governor of New Jersey and the winner or winners are going to have a joint news conference to announce what has happened here and, hopefully, give us a few more details about why it took him so long to come forward - Donna. KELLEY: Hey, Jason, have you heard anything about when they're going to spend this money what the real total is that we're talking about here after taxes?

CARROLL: All we've been told so far, Donna, is that the winner or winners have opted for the cash lump sum payment which, instead of $46 million, is going to end up being $23.7 million. Again, we're still waiting for this news conference where, hopefully, we'll be able to get a few more details for you.

KELLEY: You bet, and we'll check for after taxes. All right. All right. Thanks, Jason.

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