Carencro Store Sold $10,000 Winning Lottery Ticket

It's not a million dollar prize, but someone who bought a Powerball lottery ticket in Carencro has less than a month to claim their $10,000 prize.

Lottery spokeswoman Kim Chopin says someone bought a lottery ticket on October 6th of last year at the Kajan Mart on Veterans Drive, and it will expire on April 4th.

Chopin says they give prize winners six months to claim their prize for several very good reasons:

"You have 180 days from the date of the drawing in order to claim a prize, and that time is really set aside so that you can have your ticket checked and if you win a substantial prize like a jockpot or a life changing amount you'll have time to consult either an attorney of a CPA to determine your tax liablity, so it gives you time to get your financial house in order before claiming the prize."

Chopin says they often have to do a little work to find winners, and she explains why:

"You know it's a great idea every time you purchase a lottery ticket to go ahead and sign the back of it that way you can protect your rights if it's lost or stolen.  A lot of people need to realize that if you don't match all six of the numbers you possibly could have won another prize on the game, so always check those tickets.  That's why the lottery does this outreach, usually about a month out of a ticket that could expire.  We go ahead and put special information on our website and on Facebook just to let people know hey if you are collecting a lot of tickets to check them at one time then now might be a good time because we have a big ticket winner about to expire."

You can check out the Louisiana Lottery's website for more information.