The unluckiest lottery winners of all time who missed out on MILLIONS because of lost tickets and payment problems
YOU'D think having your lottery numbers come up would make you among the luckiest people alive – but for some, it's been the unluckiest thing to ever happen to them.
That was the case for one young couple this week who missed out on the £182million Euromillions jackpot – when they realised their winning ticket payment hadn't gone through.
Rachel Kennedy, 19, and Liam McCrohan, 21, from Hertfordshire were “absolutely heartbroken” when they realised their usual numbers had come up, but they had won nothing.
The couple, both students, had played the winning numbers of 6, 12, 22, 29, 33, 6 and 11 for five weeks in a row before all seven digits appeared in Friday's draw.
Rachel's account was set up to automatically buy a Euromillions ticket with her usual numbers but because her account did not have the right funds, the ticket payment did not go through.
“I called the number thinking that I had won £182million and they said ‘yeah you've got the right numbers but you didn’t have the funds in your account for the payment of the ticket so it didn’t actually go through’," Rachel said.
“I was on top of the world when I thought I had won but when I found out I hadn’t, Liam was actually more upset than I was."
Incredibly, they're not the only couple to miss out on millions in similarly unlikely circumstances.
Here are some of the most shockingly unlucky lotto winners.
'I'm glad I didn't get the £3m'
Martyn and Kay Tott got the shock of their lives when they realised they'd won £3million back in 2001 – six months after buying the ticket.
By the time they saw an appeal for the winner to come forward, they couldn't find the ticket.
But the couple were sure they had won because the jackpot numbers matched the ones they used every week.
Without the ticket, they had to prove to lottery operator Camelot they really had bought the winning numbers.
Computer records in their local Londis proved Kay really had purchased the ticket.
But there was a catch – a little-known rule that lost tickets must be reported within 30 days.
Having that money taken away was torture
Martyn Tott
After 45 agonising days of deliberating, Camelot told the devastated couple that they weren't going to receive the cash.
The Totts launched a public campaign for help, with celebs like Richard Branson and even then-Prime Minister Tony Blair voicing their support.
But Camelot wouldn't budge and, under the strain of their astonishing misfortune, Martyn and Kay's marriage broke down.
Martyn even spent five years fighting for the payout in legal wranglings, but he never got his hands on the cash.
"Having that money taken away was torture," Martyn told the .
"For a long time I lost sight of who I was and what I believed in. But I can honestly say I’m glad I didn’t get the £3million now.
"There is no guarantee it would have brought me happiness."
When Erick Onyango read aloud the winning numbers for a $1million US Powerball jackpot in 2013, his roommate Salvatore Cambria saw his ticket didn't match.
So he crumpled it up and threw it in the bin – which would prove to be a terrible mistake.
Bookkeeper Onyango had read the wrong winning numbers off the lottery website which hadn't updated.
And the ticket which Cambria had in his hand really was worth $1million – but he'd already chucked it out when he realised what had happened.
"They traced it to a landfill in Ontario,” the pair's lawyer, Edward Charles Logan, told the .
“There was even talk of getting a bloodhound at one point.”
I punched a hole in my [bedroom] wall, right through the sheetrock
Salvatore Cambria
But the ticket was well and truly lost, leaving Onyango and Cambria inconsolable.
"I punched a hole in my [bedroom] wall, right through the sheetrock,” Cambria said of his reaction, which also involved "hysterical crying".
Even though they could prove they'd bought other tickets at the time the winning ticket was sold, they couldn't claim their prize without the prize slip.
'My heart stopped'
Even luckier than winning a lottery is being able to find the winning ticket over a month after forgetting about it.
That's exactly what happened to Anthony Perosi, a plumber from Staten Island, New York, in 2015.
He'd bought a $2 Powerball ticket but hadn't checked the numbers after a friend mistakenly told him someone else had won the jackpot.
Six weeks later, Perosi's truck broke down and, while thinking about how he was going to have to fork out money for repairs, his mind turned back to the ticket he'd never checked.
He'd stashed it behind a pipe in his cellar – and when he pulled out to check the numbers online, he got the shock of his life: he'd won $136million.
The world's biggest unclaimed lottery prizes
- £63.8million in June 2012, with the ticket sold in the Stevenage or Hitchin area of Hertfordshire.
- $77.1million from a ticket bought in Georgia, US, in June 2011.
- $68million bought in New York, in 2002.
- $63million in 2015, with the ticket bought in California.
- $51.7million, bought in Indiana in 2002.
- $46million in 2003, with the ticket sold in Brooklyn, New York.
- $31million bought in Queens, New York, in 2006.
“I tried to breathe in and nothing would go in,” Perosi told the .
“I thought I was having a heart attack and my heart stopped. So I grabbed the ticket, figuring they would find it in my hand.”
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He decided to split the winnings 70-30 with his son, and at the time of winning claimed to have modest plans for his future.
Perosi said he would continue to work, but less than before, once his truck was repaired.
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"I’ll probably buy another vehicle," he added.