Imagine this...

It's the week before Christmas and you head into your favorite convenience store in hopes of winning it big in that night's Powerball drawing, which is worth a whopping $535 million.

Fast forward to the next morning and as you check your ticket against the winning numbers you discover that you're not a mega-millionaire, but you did match four of the first five numbers drawn.

So what does that get you?

A cool 50 grand!

It's going to be a VERY merry Christmas indeed!

All you've got to do now is head to your local lottery office and collect your prize.

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Sounds pretty easy right? Well, not for someone in Iowa.

As of 4:00 PM yesterday (June 13) afternoon, a $50,000 winning ticket from the December 16, 2023 drawing had gone unclaimed for 180 days, meaning the money was forfeited and will now go back into the Iowa Lottery prize pools for future games and promotions.

The ticket was purchased at the Casey's on Beaver Avenue in Des Moines. The winning numbers were 3, 9, 10, 20, 62, and the Powerball is 25. The Power Play was 3X.

Not that it matters anymore.

By the way, this is not the first that some big money has been left on the table in the Hawkeye State. Officials say this was one of four unclaimed lottery tickets purchased in Iowa worth at least $20,000.

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