A woman claims to have lost the fortune of a lifetime after washing away a winning lottery ticket.

According to ABC News, the winning ticket for the November 14 SuperLotto Plusdrawing was sold at an Arco AM/PM convenience store in the Los Angeles suburb of Norwalk.

The winning numbers were: 23, 36, 12, 31, 13, and the mega number of 10, with a cash prize: either $19.7 million will in cash, or $26 million in annual installments.

Yet, as of Thursday, May 13, nobody had appeared to redeem the ticket, which has caused some confusion among lottery officials.

Take a look at this news report on the lottery ticket in the video below:

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However, Arco convenience store employee Esperanza Hernandez told the Whittier Daily News that a woman came into her shop on Wednesday, May 12, and stated that she'd put the winning ticket in the pocket of her pants.

But before she could claim her huge winnings, she put her pants into the washing machine without turning her pockets out and destroyed the ticket in the wash cycle - thus sabotaging her own chance to become a millionairess.

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ABC News reports that according to California Lottery spokesperson Cathy Johnston, a copy of a surveillance video showing the woman buying the ticket has been turned over to California Lottery officials.

A regular at the store told CBS Los Angeles: "Her clothes were washed and when she pulled it out, it was all crumpled up into little pieces and she said she frantically tried to put it back together, but she couldn't."

The store would have received a $130,000 bonus if it was proven that the winning ticket was sold there.

Johnston added that if the prize isn't claimed the $19.7 million will go to Californian public schools instead.

Officials have added that the claim is being investigated, and that if a person loses a winning ticket, they must be able to provide evidence that they owned it to begin with - such as a photograph of the front and back of the ticket.

This incident comes a year after a man from Florida was arrested by police after he attempted to cash on on the winning lottery ticket he'd stolen in the first place.

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In August of 2020, 27-year-old Herbert McClellan made off with 13 scratch-off lottery tickets from a convenience store in Clearwater, Florida, and then returned to the store several hours later to try to get back his winnings.

Writing a tongue-in-cheek post on their official Facebook page, officials from the Clearwater Police Department said: "For most people, it's their lucky day when they get a winning scratch-off lottery ticket.

"That was not the case this week for Herbert McClellan, who is currently sitting in the Pinellas County Jail because of a winning $30 lottery ticket."

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The post continued: "The problem is that McClellan stole 13 scratch-off tickets from the Speedway convenience store at 32 Bay Esplanade.

"When he found out that one was a winner, he went back to the same store to cash it in. That's when store workers called us, and we arrested him. He was charged with petit theft and dealing in stolen property. It's safe to say it was not his lucky day."

I guess not all lottery winners can be lucky.

Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Michael Burrell

Woman says she destroyed $26 million lottery ticket after putting it through the wash