Where Is $9.99-Million Lotto Winner?

Somebody, presumably a North County resident, either stands to become a millionaire or suffer the most crushing loss in the five-year history of the state lottery.

Whoever bought a Lotto ticket at an Encinitas supermarket on Dec. 20 and picked the numbers 44-14-23-27-21-12 has won $9.99 million but has not yet contacted lottery officials to claim the prize.

“There really is no way to track the person,” lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Walker said Thursday. “You don’t have to sign any register or anything when you buy the ticket, so we have no way of seeking people out.”

If the winner doesn’t appear, the erstwhile wealth will be returned to the prize pool for someone else to win. In this case, it would be the biggest sum that slipped away since the Lottery began in 1985.

“It’s only happened a couple of times before,” Walker said.

In June, 1988, a winning ticket in Hawthorne went unclaimed and $4.7 million went back into the kitty. So, too, in January, 1987, when a ticket purchased in San Francisco’s Chinatown was never turned in and somebody lost $3.9 million.

“We never heard from them,” said Walker.

Some overnight millionaires can’t wait to let the world know they’ve gone warp speed into a new tax bracket.

“We get people who call the press before it (the winning ticket) gets validated,” said Walker.

Just as typically, though, people either don’t immediately know they have a lucky ticket or choose to bide their time before they step into the limelight.

“This time of year, the person could be on vacation or any number of things like that. It’s hard to know,” said Walker. “We did have someone, not long ago, wait a couple of weeks. First, he talked to his tax person and a financial adviser and did some planning.”

The $9.99-million winner, who beat one-in-14 million odds, still has time to come forward, as the lottery allows 180 days from the draw before a ticket must be surrendered.

Whomever bought the $1 ticket from the Alpha Beta store on El Camino in Encinitas would receive, after 20% is deducted for taxes, an annual $400,000 check for 20 years.