RALEIGH, N.C., Feb. 15 (UPI) -- A baggage handler and a federal worker claimed a $1 million lottery ticket one day before it was to expire, North Carolina lottery officials said Tuesday.
Raleigh and Erin Hill of Stallings, N.C., kept postponing claiming their prize out of fear of the attention, Raleigh Hill said at state lottery headquarters, located coincidentally in Raleigh, N.C.
When his wife, Erin, asked when they'd claim their prize, "I'd always say, 'We'll talk about it,'" Raleigh Hill said as he and his wife claimed their prize.
"It wasn't about the money," he said. "It was the attention -- the hoopla. ... You cannot describe it. I was overwhelmed. Nervous."
Hill discovered his $2 Megaplier ticket was a $1 million winner about two weeks after the Aug. 20 drawing but waited a couple more weeks before telling Erin.
He said he finally told her at the end of a bad day for her.
"Things aren't all that bad," he said he told her as he left the winning ticket on a computer screen displaying the winning numbers, 4-13-20-29-48.
Erin said she wanted to claim the prize immediately, but Raleigh said he wasn't ready, he said Tuesday.
So he hid the ticket for safekeeping, he said -- first in an envelope, then in a Bible, then in a shoebox and finally in his locker at work.
The couple told no one of their good luck.
At one point he thought he'd lost the ticket before remembering it was in the shoebox in a closet, he said.
The Hills -- who split the money 50-50, each receiving $340,000 after taxes -- said they plan to pay bills, visit Ireland and possibly buy a new home.
They had until 5 p.m. Wednesday to claim their winnings or they would have been out of luck, lottery officials said.
States where lottery tickets have gone unclaimed include Indiana, where $51.7 million went to no one in 2002 -- the largest forgone prize on record -- Florida, where $30.1 million went unclaimed; California, where $28.5 million went unclaimed; and Illinois, which saw $14 million remain in state coffers.
