December 6, 2012
LONDON (AFP) - The mystery holder of a lottery ticket bought in Britain worth nearly 64 million pounds ($103 million, 79 million euros) had just hours left on Wednesday to claim the prize before it was handed to charity.
Lottery officials have been desperately searching for the winner since the lucky EuroMillions ticket was bought in the Stevenage and Hitchin area of Hertfordshire, southeast England, on June 8.
The winner has until 11:00 pm (2300 GMT) on Wednesday to claim the 63,837,543.60-pound prize.
Britain's National Lottery launched a campaign to find the ticket-holder that involved a town crier proclaiming the win from a Lamborghini sports car.
"Our message is simple -- we're urging everyone to look one last time everywhere a missing ticket could be hiding," said a National Lottery spokesman.
"We're desperate to find this mystery ticket-holder and unite them with their winnings -- this amazing prize would be a fabulous early Christmas present."
The winner matched all five numbers -- 5, 11, 22, 34 and 40 -- and both of the Lucky Star numbers, 9 and 11.
Winning tickets have in the past been discovered down the backs of sofas, behind car sun visors, and once in a tin of cat treats, according to the National Lottery.
If the prize is unclaimed, the money and all the interest it has generated will go to the National Lottery charity, which has received 29 billion-pound from ticket sales since the British lottery was launched in 1994.
