A mystery Good Samaritan handed in Mike Weirsky’s lost lottery ticket worth US$273 million – and he could have claimed it himself
- Jobless lottery winner Mike Weirsky says he lost his tickets when he was distracted by his cellphone – but a stranger came to the rescue
- ‘I’m looking for the guy that handed them in … I’m going to give him something, but I’m going to keep that private’
An unemployed New Jersey man who won last Friday’s US$273 million Mega Millions jackpot said he wants to reward the mystery person who returned the tickets to a store where he’d left them a day earlier.
Mike Weirsky said at a news conference with lottery officials Thursday that he bought the tickets last Thursday at a Quick Check store in Phillipsburg, near the Pennsylvania border, and forgot them there because he was more focused on his cellphone.
Someone found them and gave them to the store to hold. When Weirsky returned on Friday, he verified the tickets were his and store employees returned them.
Lottery officials confirmed Thursday that if the man who found the tickets had held onto them and signed them, they could have claimed the jackpot.