Man finds $1M lotto ticket cleaning during storm

A Philadelphia-area man put his downtime during this weekend's snowstorm to good use: He found a lottery ticket worth $1 million, just before the prize expires.

The 39-year-old lottery player used some free time during this weekend's storm to check old tickets, according to Delaware Lottery officials.

The man, whose name was not released, found a big winner: A Powerball ticket that won $1 million by matching all five white balls in the Feb. 4, 2015, drawing.

Lottery officials said the man, who lives in the Philadelphia suburbs, bought the ticket from the Sunoco A-Plus station at 1201 N. DuPont Highway in New Castle while visiting a friend in Delaware last year.

Winners have one year to claim their prizes; the man redeemed his ticket on Monday, just a week and a half before the ticket expired.

The man told lottery officials it took so long to claim the prize because he couldn't easily scan his tickets outside of Delaware.

"Because I was too lazy to go online and check the winning numbers, the ticket remained unchecked in my wallet until last Friday night," he said, according to the lottery.

The man told lottery officials he planned to invest his winnings in real estate.