After a long day of work laying tile, Nick Slatten stopped to buy a drink and a lottery ticket.
The next morning, he checked the numbers and they all matched... he had won over a MILLION dollars!
So he rushed to tell his girlfriend. Then he ran a few errands, including taking his brother to an auto parts store and getting lunch.
About an hour later, he realized he didn't have the ticket anymore!
And as the Tennesse Lottery pointed out, that's a problem. Because if someone else had found it, they could have claimed it. From their news release: "it should be noted that lottery tickets are bearer instruments, just like cash. If a player loses his ticket, anyone can claim it. 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."
Nick got lucky a second time, because when he retraced his steps he found the ticket, in the parking lot of the auto parts store, next to a car.
As he put it, “It’s a million-dollar ticket, and someone stepped right over it.”
Two take-aways from Nick's story:
1) Always sign your lottery tickets
2) Pick up tickets you see on the ground. (Just saying!)
(Photo: Getty Images)