$30K Florida Lotto Winner May Be In Sarasota Area

SARASOTA, FL — A $30,000 Florida lottery winner may be somewhere in the Sarasota area but not know they won, according to state lottery officials.

The winning FANTASY 5 ticket was sold at the Publix located at 1445 East Venice Avenue in Sarasota County for the drawing that took place on Nov. 30, 2018.

State lottery officials said the winner only has until Wednesday to claim the money or it will be lost.

"We don't know who it is," a Publix worker at the store told Patch. "We told all of our regulars already."

The winning FANTASY 5 numbers for the Nov. 30, 2018, drawing were: 01 – 05 – 09 – 11 – 25.

The 180-day deadline to claim the top prize of $30,204.05 expires at midnight on May 29.

"Players who may have purchased a FANTASY 5 ticket at this retail location are encouraged to check their tickets from the November 30, 2018 drawing," lottery officials said.

While any Florida Lottery retailer can validate the winning ticket, the FANTASY 5 top prize must be claimed at a Florida Lottery District Office or at Florida Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee.

For more information, call the lottery’s customer service department at 850-487-7787 or visit the Florida Lottery website.

Players in the FANTASY 5 game win the top prize by matching five-of-five winning numbers drawn in any order. They can win cash prizes or a free Quick Pick ticket by matching two, three or four of the numbers drawn in the official drawing for the date played.

If there is no top prize winner, the money in the top prize pool rolls down and is shared among players who match four-of-five or three-of-five winning numbers.

Since the game's inception, more than 849 million FANTASY 5 and FANTASY 5 with EZmatch winners have won more than $4.5 billion in prizes, according to lottery officials who said that some 52,000 players have won top prizes totaling more than $2.4 billion.

The Publix worker at the Sarasota County store said that none of the regular lottery players have a clue as to who might have won the big prize.

"They're saying 'I wish that was my ticket' but that's it," confided the worker, who asked not to be identified.