It's a miracle recovery that averted tragedy
By Kate Northrop
SPARTA, Tenn. — A Tennessee player became a million dollars richer overnight and almost immediately lost his millionaire status the next day thanks to a fluke that had the potential to leave things on a very tragic note.
All hope seemed lost when a winning Tennessee Lottery ticket worth $1,178,746 was thought to be gone for good, rolling around in the dirt somewhere or blowing around in the breeze on a particularly windy day. In what seemed like a miracle, the rogue ticket was recovered by its rightful owner after it had sat untouched in a parking lot for an hour.
Nick Slatten of Sparta spent the day last Wednesday laying tile in Smithville and decided to stop at the nearby Village Market convenience store on North Congress Boulevard before heading home. There, he picked up a beverage and a lottery ticket for that night's Tennessee Cash drawing.
The next morning, he checked the results for the drawing on Mar. 10 and noticed that he had matched two numbers. He looked again and felt a rush of surprise when all the numbers drawn matched the numbers on his ticket — 2, 4, 23, 27, 34, and Cash Ball 2 — earning him the $1.18 million jackpot.
"I was stunned," Slatten told the Lottery. "I couldn't believe it. I can't express it. It was something else."
He hurried off to his fiancée Michelle's workplace in Sparta to share the news. After that, he ran some errands, one of which was taking his brother to the O'Reilly's Auto Parts store on West Bockman Way to buy a car part, followed by lunch.
Slatten realized an hour later that his million-dollar ticket was missing.
"I couldn't find it anywhere," he recalled.
As far as Slatten knew, the ticket could have been anywhere. It was a notably windy day, so it was very possible that it could have been sailing through the air or utterly lost. The ticket also wasn't signed, meaning that anyone meandering by could have picked it up and claimed it for themselves.
He was not about to give up on his million-dollar prize. Slatten quickly started to retrace his steps, which eventually brought him back to the O'Reilly Auto Parts parking lot. There, lying in the pavement completely untouched was the elusive lottery ticket. He picked it up from the ground, where it was sitting right next to the driver's side door of another car.
"It's a million-dollar ticket, and someone stepped right over it," he remarked.
In the future, Slatten said that he and his fiancée will continue working and plan on using the winnings to buy a home and better vehicles. Aiming live life with "not a whole lot of worries," they have plans for investing a portion of the prize.
According to the Lottery, Slatten's winning ticket is one of five worth $1 million or more sold in Tennessee this month and the 310th ticket sold worth at least $1 million since the Lottery began in 2004.
Hopefully, the other winners didn't have the same scare that Slatten did, but if one thing is for certain, he will have quite the story to tell down the road about winning the lottery.
Felt myself going through the emotions he did reading this! And right next to someone's car!!
Believe it or not, but Nick's ticket was "safe" out in the parking lot. No one picks up tickets laying on the ground out there checkimg to see if it's a winner, it's the discarded tickets & scratchers INSIDE convenient store trash cans you need to worry about. People rummaging through the pile, looking for a displaced winner.
Maybe when he gets the money he'll be able to afford a wallet. Or pants with pockets. Seriously, where did he put it once he found out that it was a winner that he managed to lose it in a parking lot?
Makes me remember the old time here in Sweden where you used to buy a lottery ticket in store, then came the registration with players card, no you could loose your ticket (I did once) and in 60 days your winnings would be transfered to ypur bank account. And now I played online for over 10 and all prizes are safe.
I agree, most people don't pick up discarded lottery tickets laying in parking lots. I usually don't either but I picked up one back in January 2021 after the Mega Millions jackpot of 1.5B had already been won. I saw on the ticket that the Mega ball number was 24 and I remembered that was the winning ball number. I picked up the ticket hoping the person who discarded did not already cash the ticket in. Sure enough he/she did not and I won $2.
Been dumpster diving lately (trash cans) and so far 629 entries into a drawing.
Scanned my CB 225 ticket, said won $1 and free ticket, got the free ticket and went home. Well hope the next person notices the free $1!
Probably due to COVID. I wouldnt't go around picking up random tickets either. Some time I do use rubber gloves to grab discarded scratch-offs. Not in the hope they are a winner, but for the extra spins.
Yeah COVID-19 has put a damper on things like picking up discarded tickets, in convenient store trash cans. I did find a discarded stratch-off laying beside a lottery ticket checker a few days ago. I decided to check the ticket and sure enough it was a $5 winner. I no longer do it as much as I did before but I do it on occasion and use a lot of hand sanitizer. I am looking for winners and for the reward points and second chance entries
Yeah, I used to go through the convenient store trash cans a lot before the COVID-19 pandemic but not much anymore. When I do, I use a lot of hand sanitizer. I am looking for discarded winning tickets and the non-winners for reward points and second chance prize entries. The most I have found on a discarded scratch-off is $50
Saw a similar scenario on Facebook where someone found a ticket in a parking lot that turned out to be a multi-million winner. The question was would you cash the ticket or look for the person that purchased the ticket. My answer if it was a QP, the person would never know what they lost.
Not much can be said for anyone losing their million dollar ticket after checking it.
Facebook huh? I see the kids are out.
This is exactly why I love subscriptions, you can't loose your ticket!
If I found a ticket in a parking lot and it turned out to be a multi-million dollar winner. I would not look for the person who purchased the ticket, I would keep it because most likely that person who be long gone from the parking lot like the guy in the article. If it was a QP, I would cash it in right away, if It was someone's personal pick I would think about what to do for a few days. I then would cash it in because in my state, I can remain anonymous and person who lost the ticket, would never know it was me who found it...
"person who lost the ticket, would never know it was me who found it..."
You know that being anonymous doesn't mean the lottery won't know who you are, right? And that for any substantial prize the lottery will be asking how you acquired the ticket, and that you'll be claiming that you're the rightful owner? That means you can admit that you found it and didn't try to locate the owner, or you can commit fraud and perjury hoping you don't get caught.
OMG, you have put just too much thought into this scenario. I think YOU have forgotten the rules of the lottery. It does NOT matter how I would have acquire the ticket because as long at the back of the ticket is NOT signed, it belongs to whoever found it...No fraud or perjury involved. This is why the lottery commission and lawyers always say, "sign your ticket". I have no obligation to the lottery to tell them how I came about the ticket. All they ever ask is "how did you come up the winning numbers"? Like most people say when they are asked this question, they say ' these are my lucky numbers" or friends and family special numbers or they had a dream.. Everyone says this whether it is true or not. lets just say it would be YOUR multi-million dollar lottery ticket that I would find in a parking lot "not signed" . I find it laying in a parking lot, I sign it and take it to the lottery office and cash it in anonymously. Weeks later you realize "your special" numbers were the winning numbers. You could not prove that these are your numbers because there are countless situations were there are multiple people with the same winning numbers, that is why these large jackpots get split between two or three people sometimes. The lottery commission is not legally required to tell you names and addresses of people who won the jackpot. --That ticket would be mine free and clear
I agree in principle with you but one thing you left out. CCTV, if they have one right above POS @ the lottery machine that could time/date stamp the said transaction.
Remember a few years ago the California lottery outed a huge winner by reviewing the tapes? It was all over the news and so unfair to the player since it had been purchased recently.
Yes, there are CCTV camera in some stores and the date stamps and what not on the tickets but your are forgetting one thing. There would be no reason to suspect me of having a found lottery ticket because I would have signed the ticket which gives me ALL legal rights to it. In a perfect world all stores would have working CCTV cameras but they don't. That is why some store clerks get away with stealing customers winning lottery tickets and cashing them in for themselves. Dateline and 20/20 have reported on this.. The lottery commission does NOT care about me finding an unsigned ticket on the ground, they have bigger problems to worry about...
Keep to my self.
Like I said this kind of thing has already been reported on the news so, most people already know these things that are going. It sounds like you don't know much about the lottery.
Back to the original statement there is nothing wrong with someone finding and unsigned lottery ticket in a parking lot and signing it, cashing it in and keeping the money for themselves. It even says as much on the back of lottery tickets: "Important information, please sign the back of your ticket: This ticket is a bearer instrument. ANYONE possessing a winning ticket may claim the prize."
Have a great day!
Anyone that finds a big winning ticket lying on the ground would be absolutely crazy to try to find the person that originally bought it.
Many people would immediately tell you it was they who bought it, but how would you know that you gave it back to the real original purchaser of it? Given it's worth million(s) dollars, wouldn't you want to be absolutely positive you gave it back to the person who bought it?
How would you know that the original purchaser wasn't someone who was from out of state, simply travelling through the state where it was bought, and is lonnnng gone to a state 500 miles away?
How would you know if the person that originally bought it didn't sell it or give it to someone else?
If you find a ten dollar bill on the lying on the ground in a parking lot, do you go looking for the guy who lost it? Sure, it's only ten bucks, but you can never be sure you gave it back to the person that initially lost it.
If someone is so careless as to have lost an UNSIGNED ticket that they know is worth over a million dollars, they don't deserve to get it back. God bless them if they are lucky enough to find it, but IMHO their carelessness should cost them bigtime. G5
Fraud (ie tax fraud, mail fraud, internet fraud, wire fraud etc) and perjury (a crime concerning matters material to an official proceeding such as jury trial) are felonious criminal offenses that carry prison sentences as penalties.
Cashing an unsigned bearer instrument that someone found on a street corner is neither fraud or perjury. G5
As Floyd put it" Buy clothing with pockets."
A bunch of years ago, this father out here sent his 15-17 year old son to cash his tickets, which he knew were winners. Well, with the proceeds, he told his kid to pick up a certain scratcher which as luck would have it, turned out to be a $5 mil winner. The CA lottery refused to pay after viewing the footage from the stores showing the kid picking out the winning ticket. The father said he was going to sue the lottery. Never did find out how that case turned out, pity..
"I would have signed the ticket which gives me ALL legal rights to it."
Have you made it past 2nd grade yet? Just because somebody loses their property doesn't mean they lose ownership of it.
I would agree that someone who loses something still retains ownership of it. In the case of lottery tickets, I'm not sure whether or not anyone who buys a lottery ticket actually owns it.
I seem to recall reading somewhere, (but I could be completely wrong about this) that all tickets remain the property of the lottery conducting the drawings. If that's the case, then it might be that a tickets sole purpose is to serve as proof that any bearer of it won a prize. There has to be a reason why they warn people to sign them because it's a bearer instrument. But maybe it's simply because they know they are not going to require proof that the bearer actually purchased it.
Time to do some Googling! If I find anything I'll post here. G5
Turns out I was wrong, ownership of a lottery ticket does not remain with the lottery that issued it.
The official rules documentation of all state lotteries explicitly state that the ticket is a bearer instrument. All bearer instruments of any type have no ownership information recorded on them at the time of issue and given to the purchaser. The holder is presumed to be the owner, and whoever is in possession of the physical ticket is entitled to the prize payment(s). So maybe your state lottery doesn't care if you found it lying on the street.
The reason I typed "maybe" in the paragraph above is because in New York State, if you tell the NY Lottery you found it lying on the ground, the NY Lottery is going to confiscate it for a one year holding period. After one year, if no one steps forward and says they are the guy that lost it, it's yours. How The NY Lottery proves the guy who says it was he that lost it must be an interesting process to see. Must be via CCTV videotape at the store where the ticket was sold.
I'm probably just like most players in that I hardly ever sign a ticket after I buy one. (I have actually done that, but I did it more for the laughs than anything else) What people need to do right after they stop screaming, laughing, crying, jumping up and down, hugging and kissing their significant other, pounding the steering wheel of their car (if they're driving) when they just found out they hit big is to sign that ticket and put it in a very safe place. Neither of which the boob in Tennessee did I might add. And to all you lazy knuckleheads that hand your tickets to the store clerk to do YOUR job for you and check to see if any of them were a winner, you're really asking for it and you might find out the hard way how stupid you really are!! G5
"All bearer instruments of any type have no ownership information recorded on them at the time of issue and given to the purchaser. The holder is presumed to be the owner, "
Sort of like cash, huh? Or a lawnmower. The government never passed a law that made some special class of property where the owner loses their rights to the property simply because they lose or misplace it. Bearer instruments are just an alternative to registered securities, where ownership is registered and tracked.
"and whoever is in possession of the physical ticket is entitled to the prize payment(s). "
That would be more correct if it said "will probably be able to collect" but it's meant as a warning to the purchaser, because if you lose your ticket there's a good chance you've lost the prize even if somebody presents the ticket to the lottery and asks for the prize.
" So maybe your state lottery doesn't care if you found it lying on the street."
You answered your own question, but have you also noticed that when a store sells a jackpot ticket somebody from the lottery shows up to get any video surveillance of the sale?
"the NY Lottery is going to confiscate it for a one year holding period."
More correctly, they'll withhold payment until the end of the 1 year claim period.
"How The NY Lottery proves ..."
Video of the actual purchase is one way, but there are plenty of others. Having a credit card receipt for a purchase at the same time/place would help. Knowing when the ticket was bought, or that it was for multiple drawings (or that it wasn't, FTM) helps. Some people will still have other tickets that were bought at the same time, and may even be part of the same transaction. And of course some of use play the same numbers for a period of time. It's theoretically possible that somebody else could play the same numbers I play, but it's very unlikely, and even more unlikely that they played them that one time that I didn't. If I've got a stack of tickets with the same numbers for previous drawings that's extremely good evidence. Even if I threw out all the old tickets right before losing the current one I can still tell give the lottery a list of places where those numbers have been played recently. In my case that includes a handful of places in a couple of other states.
"I hardly ever sign a ticket after I buy one"
I doubt that many people sign them, especially before finding out they're worth something. And there's a really good reason not to sign your name. As we saw with the woman in NH a couple of years ago, it may interfere with using some other legal entity to claim the prize and remain anonymous.
Glad he found his ticket. Always keep your ticket in a safe place.