--- title: Man Discovers Unclaimed $1 Million Lottery Ticket description: An Oregon man who decided to clean out his office during a recent snow day discovered an unclaimed $1 million lottery ticket. canonical: https://time.com/4634888/oregon-million-dollar-lottery-ticket/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-13T19:51:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:10.735Z og:title: Man Discovers $1 Million Lottery Ticket Days Before Deadline og:description: Now that's a close call og:url: https://time.com/4634888/oregon-million-dollar-lottery-ticket/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcea806d67c5e90c/6988b596fb4eacb625890679/lottery-ticket.jpg?branch=production&width=507&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 507 og:image:height: 285 og:image:alt: 458998999 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Discovers $1 Million Lottery Ticket Days Before Deadline twitter:description: Now that's a close call twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcea806d67c5e90c/6988b596fb4eacb625890679/lottery-ticket.jpg?branch=production&width=507&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Man Just Randomly Discovered His Unclaimed $1 Million Lottery Ticket 8 Days Before Deadline > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=4341cf8d-6e4d-4c3b-a819-de78d5056a98&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 13, 2017 7:51 PM UTC  Tickets for the Mega Millions lottery game. Tickets for the Mega Millions lottery game. DaveAlan/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 13, 2017 7:51 PM UTC An [Oregon man](http://time.com/4585335/closing-time-cops-called/) who decided to clean out his office during a recent [snow day](http://time.com/money/3682932/blizzard-juno-snow-day-work-from-home/) was in for the surprise of his life when he discovered an unclaimed [$1 million lottery ticket](http://time.com/4176128/powerball-jackpot-lottery-winners/) he had purchased nearly a year prior. According to the [Oregon Lottery](http://www.oregonlottery.org/about/press-releases/release/2017/01/11/snowstorm-leads-to-last-minute-milion-dollar-win), Joemel Panisa found the Mega Millions ticket in the knick of time, as the deadline to claim his winnings was only eight days away. Panisa told lottery officials that he had purchased the ticket Jan. 13, 2016 for the Jan. 15, 2016 drawing, but had put it in an envelope and forgotten about it. He finally claimed his prize Jan. 9, just ahead of the Jan. 17 expiration date. Panisa is only the fourth Mega Millions $1 million winner since Oregon began offering the game in 2010. Read more at [OregonLottery.org](http://www.oregonlottery.org/about/press-releases/release/2017/01/11/snowstorm-leads-to-last-minute-milion-dollar-win). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4634888/oregon-million-dollar-lottery-ticket/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4634888/oregon-million-dollar-lottery-ticket/"},"headline":"This Man Just Randomly Discovered His Unclaimed $1 Million Lottery Ticket 8 Days Before Deadline","datePublished":"2017-01-13T19:51:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:10.735Z","description":"Now that's a close call","url":"https://time.com/4634888/oregon-million-dollar-lottery-ticket/","keywords":["Newsfeed","oregon","Lottery","Weird News","Human interest"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcea806d67c5e90c/6988b596fb4eacb625890679/lottery-ticket.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcea806d67c5e90c/6988b596fb4eacb625890679/lottery-ticket.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"458998999","caption":"Tickets for the Mega Millions lottery game.","creditText":"DaveAlan/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4634888/oregon-million-dollar-lottery-ticket/","name":"This Man Just Randomly Discovered His Unclaimed $1 Million Lottery Ticket 8 Days Before Deadline"}}]}] ```