Store Manager Saves Winning Tickets From Destruction

You know that old saying, “You win some, you lose some”? One player just did both in about the span of a minute.

Jim Jones from Lincoln is a Nebraska Pick 3 player and won $1,200 in the July 4 drawing after matching all three numbers on two different tickets. After getting his tickets checked and celebrating, the big win slipped from his fingers.

“Everyone was cheering, the manager, the cashier, the customers,” he said. “I was feeling great and said, ‘Replay them!’”

Jim handed his winning tickets over to the clerk for another chance with his numbers. He grabbed his new tickets and headed home feeling luckier than ever.

The next day, while cleaning out the car, Jim decided to look at his winning tickets one more time. He pulled his stack of tickets out but something wasn’t right.

“They weren’t there,” Jim said. “They were gone. My heart just sank.”

He jumped up and got to work retracing his steps. The last place he remembered seeing his tickets was at the store when he had them checked.

He hopped back in the car and raced over to U-Stop #14 at 2700 Porter Ridge Rd. in Lincoln to see if maybe, just maybe, there was a chance they saved the tickets for him.

The tickets weren’t at the counter and none of the clerks had seen them.

Despondent, Jim was about to give up when the manager came rushing from the back. Jim’s a regular and they could see something was wrong.

The manager suggested they look at the security tapes from the previous night and see if they could figure out what happened.

The tape showed Jim’s win, the machine printing out his replay tickets and the winning tickets accidentally being tossed in the trash with a stack of non-winning tickets.

They fast forwarded through the video to see when it was taken out to the dumpster around back.

The manager popped in the back and came out with some black rubber gloves and a stepstool. They were going dumpster diving.

“We’re looking for the bag that’s got popcorn in it,” the manager said.

They hopped in the bin and started tossing aside the top layer of clear trash bags, sticky from discarded pop cans and gummy candies. The tickets had to be in there and they were going to find them, no matter how gross it might be.

They dug deeper and deeper, past layers of old hot dogs, cigarette butts and bathroom trash.

“We were digging through the bags and coming up with nothing,” Jim said. “I was about to give up.”

Just then, the manager yelled, “Found them!”

They ripped open the bag and saved both tickets.

After another round of celebrating, the two left the dumpster and Jim headed home, refusing to let the tickets out of his sight.

Jim raced over to the Nebraska Lottery’s Lincoln offices on Monday, July 7, ready to be done with the ordeal.

Trading in his tickets for a real check for $1,200 was a relief.

“I feel so much better,” Jim said. “Just incredible.”

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