A 76-year-old woman is devastated after discovering she accidentally donated a jacket containing her winning $2.5 million lottery ticket.
A 76-year-old woman from Pennsylvania is heartbroken after realizing she left her winning lottery ticket in a jacket she donated.
This ticket was worth an astonishing $2.5 million, and her good deed may have cost her a life-changing sum of money.
The generous donation to charity
Mildred Simoneriluto wanted to help others, so she donated several clothing items to the Vietnam Veterans of America. This charity supports veterans and helps them with various services.
Mildred thought she was doing something nice, but she had no idea that her jacket contained a winning lottery ticket.
Just two weeks before her donation, Mildred bought a lottery ticket from a grocery store in Murrysville.
She had tucked the ticket into the pocket of her jacket for safekeeping. However, after donating the jacket, she forgot all about the ticket.
76-year-old woman devastated after mistakenly donating jacket containing her winning $2.5M lottery ticket
Last year, Mildred remembered that she had purchased a lottery ticket. She was excited to check the numbers, only to realize she could not find it.
After searching her home, she panicked when she recalled placing the ticket in the jacket she had donated.
Mildred felt overwhelmed and confused. “I was stupefied,” she said in an interview. “There are no words for it. I just kept thinking, ‘How can I get it back?’”
The challenges of retrieving the ticket
Mildred quickly reached out to the charity to find her jacket. Unfortunately, the Vietnam Veterans of America donates clothing to various countries.
This means her jacket—and the ticket—might not even be in the United States anymore.
She went back to the grocery store where she bought the ticket, hoping they could help her.
Mildred visited multiple times, but the employees were unable to offer any solutions. Lottery officials told her that she needed the physical ticket to claim her jackpot.
The deadline to claim her winnings is approaching fast. Mildred must have the ticket in hand by May 8 to collect her $2.5 million.
With each passing day, her chances of recovering the ticket diminish. Despite her worries, Mildred remembers the winning numbers: 14, 22, 33, 35, and 38.
This memory gives her a glimmer of hope, but she knows it is not enough to claim the prize without the actual ticket.
Mildred’s emotional struggle.
Mildred expressed her feelings of frustration and sadness as she searches for solutions.
“What else can I do? Cry out loud and hope something good happens?” she asked, reflecting her desperation.
Her story has touched many people, with hopes that karma will be kind to her after her generous act of charity.
Everyone is rooting for Mildred, wishing she can find a way to reclaim her ticket.
