Lottery: We gave wrong numbers for expiring $200K Philly ticket

Because of a mixup at the Pennsylvania Lottery, people may have been checking the wrong numbers while looking for a $200,000 winning Powerball ticket that expires next week.

Yes, there is an expiring $200,000 prize, and, yes, the ticket was purchased at Choi Food & Beer at 3987 Ford Rd. in Philadelphia.

But the numbers quoted were wrong.

The correct numbers are 9, 12, 31, 39 and 52.

In a recent news release, the lottery apparently repeated a set of numbers from an earlier announcement, about an expiring $400,000 ticket purchased in Cumberland County, Pa.

That prize, from the May 28, 2008, drawing, was claimed with just one week left by Brenda Stover, after her husband saw a news report and suggested she check her shoebox full of tickets.

The numbers discrepancy was discovered this morning while checking Powerball.com to verify the numbers for the about-to-expire prize.

"Thank you very much for catching our error in that Powerball press release," lottery spokeswoman Elizabeth Brassell said this morning.

"The date was correct. Everything was correct in the release, except for the winning numbers," she said.

"Again, our apologies. ... We are going to issue a correction today."

If you have the first five numbers (don't worry about the Powerball) from the June 18, 2008, drawing, you have until Thursday, June 18, to claim your prize.

Officials advise that first you sign the back of the ticket, making it difficult for anyone else to claim it.

Then call the Pennsylvania Lottery at 717-702-8146 and file a claim by June 18 at lottery headquarters in Middletown, Dauphin County (before 4 p.m.) or at any of the lottery's seven regional offices (till 4:30 p.m.), including the Philadelphia office at 700 Packer Avenue (215-952-1123).

$87.2 million still unclaimed. Speaking of checking tickets, any chance you bought a ticket at Plymouth Meeting Mall at the end of February?

Two tickets hit the Feb. 28 Powerball jackpot of $174.4 million, and one was purchased there.

Half has already been claimed by a winner in Delaware.

Those numbers were 3, 16, 20, 42 and 58, with a Powerball of 7.

Saturday's Powerball drawing. The biggest winners in the latest drawing also won $200,000 - but those tickets were purchased in Florida and Colorado.

Saturday night, no ticket had all the numbers - 10, 18, 23, 30 and 45, with a Powerball of 2 - so Wednesday's annuity jackpot will be worth about $45 million.

For more lottery information, go to www.philly.com/philly/news/lottery.