Just In Time

(AP)  A 40-year-old computer technician collected a $46 million lottery jackpot Friday with a ticket that arrived in the mail at lottery headquarters three days after nearly everyone assumed the money had been forfeited.

Melvin B. Milligan of Passaic, N.J. took 10 minutes to find the nearly year-old ticket in a junk drawer last week after hearing news reports about how time was running out to claim a big jackpot.

He got the ticket validated at a convenience store computer two days before the one-year deadline of Saturday, June 9. And then, to the astonishment of lottery officials, he entrusted the ticket to the U.S. mail and sent it off to lottery headquarters in Trenton.

It arrived on Tuesday.

"It wasn't even certified or insured mail," lottery spokeswoman Annette Jenkins said. "It's amazing."

By the time the ticket arrived, lottery officials had already announced that the prize had gone unclaimed and would be forfeited.

Miligan's wife, Kim, smilingly predicted a grim outcome for her husband if the ticket had not been validated in time. "I guess we'd be out at the jailhouse today," she said. "He'd have been dead."

The ticket was postmarked June 7, two days before the deadline. But lottery officials said that as long as Milligan validated the ticket at the store by the deadline, he was entitled to the prize - even if the ticket had gotten lost in the mail.

Milligan, who described himself as an occasional lottery player, said he would use his winnings to take care of his family, look for a home and take a cruise somewhere. He refused to say whether he had children.

Milligan said he will take the $46 million in annual installments over 26 years, rather than a $23.7 million lump sum.

"I was in shock for a while and just drove around," a beaming Milligan said at a news conference with his 34-year-old wife and acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco. "There was an envelope attached to the claim form so I just mailed it in. Somehow, I knew the lottery would get it, and I knew they'd call."

Milligan's wife wasn't so sure. She said, "Are you crazy? You mailed it?"' he recalled. "I said, `Yeah, I mailed it."'

The ticket for the multistate Big Game lottery was sold at the Krauszer's convenience store in Montvale on June 9, 2000 - the day of the drawing.

If the prize had not been claimed, the money would have gone to New Jersey and the six other states that participate in the game: Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Illinois, Virginia and Georgia.


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