Someone has come forward at the eleventh hour to claim a $1.5 million Powerball ticket bought last October in Los Gatos, according to the California Lottery, though it wasn't quite official as of Monday morning.
The ticket was set to expire Monday, and lottery officials as of noon said on social media the purported winner had yet to submit all the paperwork required for an official claim. Later in the day, lottery officials confirmed they had received all the necessary forms.
The person was not immediately identified.
As with all big winners, the California Lottery will vet the claim to ensure it's legitimate, officials said.
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The funds from unclaimed lottery tickets by rule go to public schools, the lottery said, and such reallocations are quite common. The Lottery said it has raised more than $1 billion just in unclaimed prizes alone since the California Lottery's inception in 1985.
The ticket bought at a Mobil gas station at 15380 Los Gatos Blvd. matched the first five numbers from the Oct. 26 draw. Those numbers were 19, 36, 37, 46 and 56, with the Powerball number 24.
