German finds 15mn-euro winning lotto ticket in coat

A German man has won 15.3 million euros ($18 million) in the lottery after discovering a forgotten ticket in his coat pocket six months after he bought it.

The father from the Frankfurt area had remained oblivious to his winnings all spring and summer despite a poster campaign to find him, the Lotto Hessen company said Monday.

But with the weather turning chilly in Germany, the man reached for a jacket he had not worn since March -- to discover the ticket in his pocket.

"It wasn't until the weekend that I found the ticket again, folded up in the inside pocket of my jacket," the unidentified man was quoted as saying in a statement by Lotto Hessen. 

"When I checked the numbers on my phone and saw the winning amount, I was completely shocked –- luckily I was sitting down, otherwise my knees would have given way."

The man had even heard about the campaign to find the lucky winner.

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"I heard about it on the radio at the time and thought to myself, 'How stupid can you be not to collect it?'", he said. "It never occurred to me that I could be the person they were looking for."

When asked what he was planning to do with his winnings, the man said he would first buy a new living room sofa.

Beyond that, he and his wife were planning to use the bulk of the money to provide for their children, he said.

Both have sworn not to tell anyone else about their win.

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