Man who won $5.8m lottery jackpot was left heartbroken after discovering he couldn't collect his prize
A US man who won a staggering $5.8 million (about £4.25m) after hitting the jackpot on the lottery was unable to claim a single penny thanks to one bad decision.
Clarence Jackson, from Connecticut, did what most folks can only dream of when he purchased a Quick Pick lottery ticket back on 13 October 1995, managing to match six numbers and scooping the jackpot.
However, while it should have been cause for celebration the whole ordeal didn’t quite end up that way.
At the time he bought the ticket, Jackson was working full time as a cleaner and was also caring for his elderly father.
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In fact, he was reportedly so busy that he didn’t even realise he had won the jackpot until exactly one year later - 13 October 1996 - after his sister heard on the news that there was an unclaimed ticket in the area.
When Jackson determined that he was indeed in possession of the winning ticket it was the final day of the 365-day window in which winners can claim their prize.
But it was also a Sunday, and Jackson didn’t think he would be able to validate his ticket that night.
The not-so-lucky lotto winner believed that he had to take the ticket to the lottery headquarters and had assumed that it wouldn’t be open over the weekend.
The following day was a public holiday and Jackson didn’t end up getting to the lottery HQ until Wednesday, where he was told that he had missed the deadline by three days.
Ouch.
Determined to get his hands on the cash, Jackson filed a lawsuit against the Connecticut Lottery Corporation, in which he said there were ‘exceptional circumstances’ that had prevented him from realising he had been sitting on a winning ticket for 12 months.
According to the Mirror, his legal team argued that during that time, his dad had been hospitalised and he had been caring for him alongside working.
Ultimately, a court ruled in favour of Connecticut Lottery Corporation.
Speaking in 2015, Anne Noble, president and CEO of Connecticut Lottery Corporation told CBS that while the company was in the business of handing out money, players had to stick to the rules.
"When we make exceptions we open up a Pandora's box. How do we say no to the next person," she said.
In 2015, Jackson vowed to keep fighting to get his hands on the cash and was attempting to get a bill passed that would change the rules and allow him to collect his prize.
But less than a year later, during an appearance on Good Morning America, it appeared as though Jackson had come to terms with his misfortune and said had he been handed such a huge amount of cash back in the mid-1990s he likely would have ended up ‘dead or broke’.
He said: "Back then, I must say, I would have been too young, and I would have blown all the money.
"I was living a different lifestyle. I was trying to get into the music business back then, and I knew I'd be dead or broke now."
Claire Reid