US Man Hits $1.2 Million Jackpot, Loses Lottery Ticket, Then Finds It Back

The lottery commission encourages winners to sign their tickets immediately after buying them in the event that they become lost or stolen.

Nick Slatten, 31, might be one of the luckiest people in 2021. He went to bed on March 10 and woke up the next day a millionaire. Then his fortune seemingly disappeared when he lost his winning lottery ticket. Slatten's jackpot story began when he and his boss made a pit stop at a local supermarket after a day's worth of work laying tile. The longtime scratch-off player of Sparta, Tenn. - with one $500 win under his belt from about six years ago - grabbed something to drink, two scratch-offs and a Tennessee Cash lottery ticket. The winning numbers were called that night, but Slatten wouldn't know he had them until he took a break from running errands the next day, he told The Washington Post. "I left the water company, and I pulled the lottery app up on my phone. I recognized two of the numbers on my ticket," he said. "I pulled out my ticket and I noticed every single number was matching up as I was driving down the road."