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5 Powerball, Mega Millions jackpots still unclaimed

Somewhere out there are five tickets that recently won five major jackpots, including one in Philadelphia and another in South Jersey.

It's not surprising that Philadelphia's waiting to find out the identity of the lucky soul who scored a $131.5 million Powerball  jackpot. The winning ticket was purchased just 10 days ago at Federal Beer in Point Breeze. The winning numbers:  13, 19, 23, 33 and 57, with a Powerball of 28.

Slideshow: "Jackpots hit in Pa. worth $50 million or more."

After all, lottery winners are often advised to first sign the ticket and then get professional legal and financial advice before staking a claim.

But more than a month has passed with all the other wins, including the $30 million Mega Millions jackpot hit May 31 at the Vineland Truck Stop in Buena, Atlantic County, N.J.  The winning numbers: 2, 20, 26, 44, and 46, with a Mega Ball of 26.

No word yet about who won, truck stop owner Tony Singh said this morning. No claim yet, emailed New Jersey Lottery spokeswoman Judith Drucker.

Other uncollected jackpots:

The May 25 Powerball jackpot, worth a $50 million annuity, was hit by three tickets, but only the one sold at a Rehoboth Beach, Del., supermarket was cashed in – for about $10.4 million. The winner remained anonymous.

The others were sold in Louisiana and Virginia. The winning numbers: 2, 6, 19, 21 and 27, with a Powerball of 25.

A much bigger Mega Millions jackpot, worth $198 million on May 17, had two winners, but only Joe Garofalo of Tinton Falls, N.J., claimed his half.

The other winning ticket was sold in Farmville, Va. The winning numbers were:  11, 15, 35, 43 and 49, with a Mega Ball of 41.

The time winners take varies greatly.

One night after an April 2012 Powerball drawing, word was out that four dozen SEPTA workers hit a jackpot with an annuity value of $172.7 million. They split the cash: $107.5 million.

But Pam Nicolo, a teacher from Wyndmoor, took more than three months to claim $46.6 million from a February 2009 Powerball drawing.

It took Joseph T. Jones Jr. two days short of a year – and the expiration date -- to realize he'd won $20.8 million in Pennsylvania's Wild Card Lotto in 1992.

An even longer delay is unfolding in Illinois, because of lawsuits over a ticket that hit a May 4, 2012, Mega Million jackpot worth $118 million. The dispute is over how many people had a stake in an office pool. Some regulars said they should have been included, especially since some previous winnings were allegedly rolled over to purchase the set of tickets that produced the winner.

It's rare for a major jackpot to go unclaimed, but it has happened.

A $77 million Powerball jackpot, hit at a Georgia truck stop in June 2011, was never awarded.

And New York City, amazingly, missed out on three Mega Millions jackpots: $31 million in August 2006, $46 million in April 2003, and $68 million in December 2002. In that last case, a man said he lost the ticket and sued for the winnings, but he also lost in court.