(Radio Iowa) – A Powerball ticket with a six-figure prize will soon become a worthless piece of paper. Iowa Lottery Spokesperson Mary Neubauer says the ticket worth 500-thousand dollars was purchased March 16th at a Kwik Star in Mason City. “You have 180 days, or almost six months in Iowa to claim prizes in Powerball. So that ticket will expire at the close of business on September 12th of this year, if it’s not claimed by the deadline,” she says. Neubauer and others from the Iowa Lottery staff went to the store Monday to raise awareness of the unclaimed prize. “Lots of people were, you know, kind of sharing their theories. Certainly, one of the theories was that it was a truck driver who was just passing through and maybe never check the ticket,” Neubauer says. “Others wonder if somebody just set it aside and maybe it’s still, you know, tucked in somebody’s sun visor or sitting on their dresser at home. Others wonder if maybe they just checked to see if they won the jackpot and didn’t check any further.”

The prize is large enough that the winning ticket has to be redeemed at Lottery Headquarters in Clive. “If the prize expires without being claimed, the money goes back into the Iowa Lottery prize pools for future games and promotion. So it will go to pay prizes, just not the particular prize that expired,” she says. “With this being such a major amount we’ve talked about, you know, maybe doing something special with this money to hold, to hold a special promotion, to give it away.” A two million dollar Mega Millions ticket expired in 2023 with being claimed. Neubauer says anything could happen in the final month and they hope everyone checks their tickets. “There have been times when somebody did come forward, like within the last month that a prize was eligible. So you never know. I mean, we will never say, Never, until that expiration date hits,” Neubauer says.

Neubauer says the store where the ticket was sold will keep a sign up letting people know until the ticket expires.  “The clock is really ticking down on this prize. We are down to exactly one month before this $500,000 prize that was won in the power of Powerball game will expire.”