Someone in NJ won $5.9 million and has no idea — the clock is running out
I have a recurring dream that I have never been able to fully shake.
I am in my house — the one I have lived in for 33 years — and I discover a door I have never noticed before. I open it. And on the other side is an entire room I did not know existed. Mid-century style, maybe early 1960s. A recessed seating area. A sectional couch. A bar in the corner. And a hi-fi system that sounds like nothing I have ever heard.
It feels so real every time. I wake up genuinely disappointed that the room is not there.
Maybe I have watched too much Mad Men. Maybe it is just the idea of discovering something wonderful that was yours all along — something right there the whole time that you simply did not know about.
Like $5.9 million dollars.
Someone in New Jersey is sitting on a winning lottery ticket
This is not a dream. This is real and the clock is running.
A Pick-6 jackpot ticket worth $5.9 million was sold on May 22, 2025 at the Eisenhower Exxon at 550 Eaglerock Avenue in Roseland, Essex County. Nearly a year later that ticket has not been claimed. New Jersey Lottery players have exactly one year from the date of the drawing to claim a prize — which means whoever is holding that ticket has until May 22, 2026 to come forward.
That is less than four weeks from today.
There is also a $50,000 Powerball ticket sold at D’Latinos Beauty Supply at 6130 Bergenline Avenue in West New York, Hudson County that expires even sooner — May 3rd. That one has days left.
Think about that. Someone bought a lottery ticket, won $50,000 and either does not know it or forgot about it entirely. The ticket is sitting somewhere right now — in a wallet, in a junk drawer, in the pocket of a jacket they have not worn since last spring.
Photo by Patrick Donnelly on Unsplash
Where do lottery tickets go to hide
Here is where I need you to stop reading for a moment and think.
Do you have old lottery tickets somewhere? Because most of us do. There is the ticket you bought at the QuickChek on the way to work six months ago. The one from the gas station in your glove compartment. The birthday scratch-off your cousin gave you that you tucked into a card and never checked. The stack of them in the kitchen junk drawer that you keep meaning to go through.
Go through them. Right now. I am serious.
The New Jersey Lottery makes it easy. You can scan any ticket using the NJ Lottery mobile app — available on iPhone and Android — and it will tell you immediately if you have a winner. Or you can go to njlottery.com and enter your ticket numbers manually into the ticket checker tool. Both are free and take about thirty seconds per ticket.
The $5.9 million ticket was purchased at a gas station in Roseland. The $50,000 ticket at a beauty supply store in West New York. These are not exotic locations. These are the kinds of places every New Jersey resident stops on a regular Tuesday. The winner is almost certainly a regular person who bought a ticket, went about their life and simply never checked.
SEE ALSO: New Jersey scams 2026: how much consumers lose each year
Photo by Phebe Tan on Unsplash
What I would do with that room
If I found a $5.9 million ticket in my jacket pocket I know exactly what I would do first. I would build that room. The one from the dream. The recessed sectional, the mid-century bar, the hi-fi system that rattles the windows. I have been designing that room in my sleep for years. Might as well finally put it somewhere real.
But seriously — check your tickets. The May 3rd deadline on the $50,000 Powerball ticket is coming fast. And May 22nd for the $5.9 million Pick-6 is not far behind.
Somewhere in New Jersey right now there is a ticket worth nearly six million dollars. It might be in your car. It might be in your coat. It might be in that drawer in the kitchen where everything goes to disappear.
Go look. The dream might actually be real this time.
New Jersey retail brands with the most lottery winners in 2025
These 12 retail brands in New Jersey racked up the most New Jersey Lottery winners in 2025, according to lottery data through September. The brands are listed in ascending order, starting with No. 12, and include a list of locations and winning prizes for each brand.
Gallery Credit: New Jersey 101.5
This content is sourced from nj1015.com and is shared for informational purposes only.
