A $250,000 winning lottery ticket that was acquired at a Bolingbrook gas station about a year gone will lapse if somebody doesn’t claim the prize soon, according to Illinois Lottery officers.

The Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold at the Meijer Gas Station at 735 E. Boughton Road and will lapse on Jan 4, 2012, one year after the drawing date. National lottery

Illinois Lotto officials post unclaimed prizes on their internet site. Lottery numbers

Mike Lang, a spokesman for the Illinois Lottery, related there are $2 million in prizes including from scratch-off tickets and other games that go unclaimed a month.

“We don’t like to see tickets go unclaimed,” announced Lang. “But it happens all of the time and is more typical for it to happen with smaller prizes. It does occur with larger prize tickets too.”

Lang suggests for players to simply check their tickets at the earliest opportunity.

Meijer officials could not be reached for comment.