Man finds winning £13million lottery ticket left in jacket for six months

A lucky man found a lottery ticket he had left in his coat pocket for six months, only to discover he had won £13million with it.

The father, from the Frankfurt area of Germany, had remained oblivious to his winnings all spring and summer despite a poster campaign to find him, said the Lotto Hessen company on Monday. He found out about the lucky win as the weather started turning chilly and he reached for a jacket in his closet, which he hadn't worn since March.

When he found the ticket and decided to check the numbers, he was "shocked" to find out he was the lucky winner of €15,336,286.40 (about £13.3million). "It wasn't until the weekend that I found the ticket again, folded up in the inside pocket of my jacket," the man said.

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"When I checked the numbers on my phone and saw the winning amount, I was completely shocked – luckily I was sitting down, otherwise my knees would have given way." The father had even heard about the campaign, which was launched after the winning ticket remained unclaimed for two months, and admitted he had thought at the time: "How stupid can you be not to collect it?"

But he said: "It never occurred to me that I could be the person they were looking for." Asked what he was planning to do with his huge winnings, the dad said he would first buy a new living room sofa.

He and his wife said the rest of the money will be used to provide for their children. The millionaire couple said they won't tell anyone else about their huge win. Lotto spokesman Martin Blach said: "Out of sight, out of mind - unbelievable, but that's probably how it must have been."

Back in 2013, a British couple became lottery millionaires after forgetting to check their numbers for three weeks. David Nelson, 77, and his wife Susan, 67, left their winning £1million ticket gathering dust in a drawer.

Then they read an appeal for a missing EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle winner to come forward and ­realised: "It's us." Retired upholsterer David said: "I had just put it away safe for a few weeks, I'd forgotten to check it at the time.

"Then I decided to check my ticket at midnight one night when I read there was a winner who hadn't come forward. I was absolutely shocked to see it was the winner. I woke up Susan to tell her the news. It's fantastic."

Susan added: "When David woke me up I was so excited. Neither of us slept at all that night until we could check it was true."