One week left to claim $10,000 winning lottery ticket bought in Charleston

The person who bought a $10,000 winning lottery ticket at a West Ashley gas station has less than a week left to claim it.

The Mega Millions ticket was bought in March at the Northbridge Exxon, according to Holli Armstrong with the S.C. Lottery Commission.

Four of the five white numbers and the gold number matched the winning numbers that were announced March 30, making the ticket worth $10,000. Nobody has stepped forward to claim it.

“It happens more often than you think,” Armstrong said.

The biggest unclaimed ticket was an $800,000 Powerball ticket that was bought a couple years ago in Rock Hill, she said.

Customers and staff at the Exxon station, which is on Sam Rittenberg Boulevard at Orange Grove Road, were amazed Wednesday that somebody would let $10,000 slip through their fingers.

“Dang,” said mechanic Greg Caringer. “Hopefully they didn’t throw it away. They might want to dig around in the trash.”

There’s no way it was his, said Ricky Norris, who was buying tickets at the station Wednesday afternoon.

“I know it wouldn’t be,” Norris said. “I always check mine.”

Station owner Robert Suggs said he had never heard of somebody buying a ticket there and not claiming it.

“That’s a shame,” he said. “I hope they turn it in.”

A clerk pointed out that the person who bought the ticket could live anywhere in the country, since the station is on a heavily traveled route between U.S. Highway 17 and Interstate 26.

Unclaimed Mega Millions tickets worth $10,000 were also bought in March at the Kangaroo Express #3406 at 100 Shelby Highway in Gaffney and the Citgo at 4650 Broad St. in Sumter, Armstrong said.

Ticket numbers can be checked at the Lottery Commission’s website at sceducationlottery.com.

These winning tickets must be turned in at the lottery claim center in Columbia by 4:45 p.m. Wednesday. The address is 1309 Assembly St. and the phone number is 803-253-4004.

Reach Dave Munday at 937-5553 or twitter.com/dmunday.