Man Threw Out $100,000 Lottery Ticket Before Realizing He Won

A South Carolina man threw out a lottery ticket worth $100,000.

But he was able to find it again.

The unidentified man from Newberry, S.C., told officials from the South Carolina Education Lottery that he had checked the numbers on his Palmetto Cash 5 ticket, thought he had not won, and tossed the ticket in the trash, according to a lottery press release.

He said he was sipping his coffee, looked over the results again, and realized that he actually had the winning numbers, matching all five numbers from the Friday, Jan. 24 drawing.

“I checked the results for the day before,” he told lottery officials.

The man told officials he plans to give some money to charity and invest in a college fund for his grandchildren. A BP gas station in Newberry received $1,000 for selling the winning ticket.

The odds of winning the $100,000 grand total are 1 in 501,942, according to the release.