Man loses lotto ticket worth more than R17.5 million – then finds it again!

Nick Slatten is one of the luckiest men on the planet but he was very nearly the opposite. Slatten hit the jackpot in a local lottery when his ticket matched all the necessary numbers, making the slip of paper worth just over $1 million… then he lost it.

‘I WAS STUNNED, I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT’

Slatten, a resident of Sparta, Tennessee in the United States, purchased the winning “Tennessee Cash” ticket after laying tiles all day on Wednesday, 10 March. The lotto ticket was for the draw taking place that very same evening.

The next day, on Thursday morning, Slatten checked the draw’s results on the Tennessee Lottery app on his phone. At first, he noticed that he had matched two numbers and when he looked again he saw that he had hit all the numbers, which made his lotto ticket worth a whopping $1 178 746 (R17 538 608).

“I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it,” said Slatten. He was at a loss for words, according to the Tennessee Education Lottery.

Slatten rushed to his fiancee Michelle’s place of work to tell her the good news and then decided to run more errands – he took his brother to purchase a car part and stopped for a bite to eat.

Approximately an hour later, Slatten realised that he did not have the million-dollar ticket in his possession anymore.

“I couldn’t find it anywhere,” said Slatten.

LOTTO TICKET WORTH MILLIONS BLOWING IN THE WIND

According to the rules, if a player loses a lotto ticket it can be claimed by anyone who happens upon it, just like cash. 

“The Lottery always encourages players to sign their ticket immediately after purchase to identify it as theirs and to help prevent someone else from cashing it, in the event that it is lost or stolen,” advised the Tennessee Education Lottery.

A panicked Slatten immediately began retracing his steps as he searched for his missing fortune. When he arrived at the auto parts shop he took his brother to he saw the lotto ticket lying on the ground next to the driver’s side door of another vehicle. This feat is particularly miraculous because the ticket was lost on a very windy day.

“It’s a million-dollar ticket, and someone stepped right over it,” said Slatten, whose ticket was one of five worth $1 million or more sold in the state in March 2021.

Nick and Michelle plan to buy a house and purchase better vehicles with the winnings and maybe invest. They aim to live life with “not a whole lot of worries,” according to Slatten. 

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