5
$1.537 billion. Mega Millions, October 2018
One ticket, one winner, South Carolina, and a year of total silence.
$877.8mThe cash option she took.
A single ticket from a KC Mart in Simpsonville, South Carolina. Then nothing. For nearly five months, the largest single-ticket prize in history sat unclaimed while the state wondered whether somebody had lost it.
In March 2019 a woman came forward through a lawyer, took the cash option, and stayed anonymous, which South Carolina permits. She has never been named, gave no interviews, and donated to several charities through a foundation.
She is a woman who wants to be anonymous, and she is going to remain anonymous.
Of every story in this list, hers is the one that most reads like it worked.