Tennessee man misplaces his million-dollar lottery ticket, then finds it lying in a parking lot

Mar 19, 2021, 4:18 pm (29 comments)

Tennessee Lottery

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.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

Bleudog101

Felt myself going through the emotions he did reading this!    And right next to someone's car!!

noise-gate

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. Yes Nod

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

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?

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Thud

bigbuckswede

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.

winterhug

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. 

Bleudog101

Quote: Originally posted by winterhug on Mar 20, 2021

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!

LottoNoobie

Quote: Originally posted by noise-gate on Mar 19, 2021

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. Yes Nod

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.

winterhug

Quote: Originally posted by LottoNoobie on Mar 20, 2021

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

winterhug

Quote: Originally posted by LottoNoobie on Mar 20, 2021

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, 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

MatrixMan369's avatarMatrixMan369

Quote: Originally posted by CDanaT on Mar 19, 2021

Thud

I Agree!

Stack47

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.

noise-gate

Quote: Originally posted by Stack47 on Mar 20, 2021

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.

dannyct

This is exactly why I love subscriptions, you can't loose your ticket!

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