Noah Feit

The State

A North Carolina man was a millionaire, only he didn’t know it.

That’s because the man who won $1 million playing Powerball left the winning ticket unattended for weeks, the South Carolina Education Lottery said in a news release.

“I have a bad habit of waiting to check my lottery tickets,” said the man, who has chosen to remain anonymous, according to the news release.

After weeks of ignoring the ticket that sat on his dining room table, the man said he was stunned and his wife was speechless when they finally checked the numbers, SC Lottery officials said.

The North Carolina resident bought the winning ticket for the June 8 Powerball drawing at a Nanba in Bennettsville, according to the news release.

That is close to the state line between North Carolina and South Carolina, about 100 miles from Columbia and 90 miles from Charlotte.

The first five white numbers on his ticket matched the drawing of 9, 13, 42, 48, 60, according to the news release. The winning red Powerball number was 18.

South Carolina Lottery officials said the odds of hitting a $1 million jackpot are 1-in-11,688,054.

South Carolina is one of just a few states — along with Delaware, Kansas, Georgia, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio and Texas — that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous, The State reported.