If I played the lottery, I'll bet you I'd have the same luck as Donald Peters of Danbury, Connecticut. Peters had purchased lotto tickets regularly for 20 years. According to the AP, on November 1, 2008 Peters purchased his lottery tickets as usual but died of a heart attack later that day while working in his yard.
As you can imagine, his wife did not have the tickets checked for a couple months. When she did, she discovered that the ticket was worth $10 million.
Of course, the article mentions how he "provided financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family" and that he "wins $10M for widow", but any lottery player will give you their true opinion on a topic like this. The man's son, Brian Peters, wasn't afraid to come out and say it: "He'd be very mad, he just passed away and she won a lot of money. He'd say, 'Figures!'"