SPARTA, Tenn. (WHDH) — An unsigned lottery ticket worth more than $1 million laid in the parking lot of an auto parts store in Sparta, Tennessee as the man who purchased the ticket frantically searched for it.
Nick Slatten purchased the Tennessee Cash ticket after finishing his day laying tile on March 10.
The next morning he checked his numbers and realized his ticket was worth $1,178,746.
“I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it,” Slatten told the Tenn. Lottery. “I can’t express it. It was something else.”
He went to his fiancée’s work to tell her about the good news before running errands, which included taking his brother to buy a car part at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts store and then a stop for lunch.
About an hour later, Slatten realized he lost his ticket and immediately began retracing his steps.
He eventually found it in the O’Reilly’s parking lot, laying on the ground next to the driver’s side door of another vehicle.
“It’s a million-dollar ticket and someone stepped right over it,” Slatten said.
His ticket is one of five tickets worth $1 million or more sold in Tennessee this month.
Slatten and his fiancée plan to buy a house and better vehicles with the money, as well as invest some of it.
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