Nine Indiana auto part workers whose factory will close at the end of the year, rendering them unemployed, won the $9 million Hoosier Lotto jackpot. The nine men, all of them current and former Delphi Corp. employees, contributed weekly to pay for tickets worth $50 in the lottery. All of them remained patient, for more than 15 years and never gave up their dream of winning.

Tom Smith of Indianapolis, Indiana did not cash in his $5 scratch-off lottery ticket right away. He actually waited several months. But when he did try to claim his prize he was told it was too late. According to CNN reports, Smith filed an appeal with the Indiana State Lottery Commission in 1996 saying he was not aware of a time limit. When his claim was rejected he sued the agency for damages.

While doing some housecleaning after learning of an unclaimed $853,492 Powerball ticket from October, Steve Jones swept several tickets from underneath his bed and one turned out to be the lucky one. Jones says, "Someone had mentioned to me there was a story in the paper about the missing ticket. "

After hearing a June 8 Lotto drawing had a $4. 6 million unclaimed prize, a couple decides to check their own stash of lottery tickets. Richard and Leslie Crosby went through their unchecked tickets and found the winning ticket, verifying it at 11:17 p. m. , less than an hour before the prize payout was set to expire.

Only in America can one swear the oath of citizenship and win almost $2 million dollars a few hours later. That very thing happened to Moses Bittok of West Des Moines, who discovered he had a winning lottery ticket later that day. "It's almost like you adopted a country and then they netted you $1. 8 million," says Bittok, who cashed in the winning ticket Monday. "It doesn't happen anywhere. . . I guess only in America. "