Store worker from Kansas praised for tracking down owner of a $1 million lottery ticket

STORE WORKER FROM KANSAS PRAISED FOR TRACKING DOWN OWNER OF A $1 MILLION LOTTERY TICKET

A store worker in Kansas in the USA has been praised for returning a $1 million winning lottery ticket to the customer who left it on the counter.Kal Patel, who works in the Pit Stop convenience store that his parents own in Salina, Kansas, decided to track down the owner of the winning lottery ticket after one of his colleagues found it on the counter of the store. Clerk Andy Patel found the ticket had been left by a customer, and checked it on their lottery ticket checker, stunned to find it was worth $1 million. Recently we told you about a Kansas syndicate who won $50,000 on the Powerball after 15 years of playing together, and a scratch card winner from the same state who was shocked after winning $25,000.“He said six zeroes were popping up on the screen,” Kal Patel said of when his colleague called him to find out what to do. “I knew it was a long-time customer who had left it here,” he said, admitting that despite knowing that the prize would be life-changing for him and his family, he was determined to find its rightful owner.The owners of a store in New Jersey also tracked down the rightful owner of a winning lottery ticket that had accidentally been thrown in the trash.“They didn’t know they had the winning ticket, so they never would have known if I hadn’t found them,” the honest store worker said. “But then you’d have to live through the guilt of that all your life.”Mr Patel said that he knew who the customer was based on his colleague’s description, so he drove around the neighbourhood where he thought he lives until he found him and his brother driving away. “I showed them the ticket and told them they were winners,” he said. “They started shaking. They couldn’t believe it.” Lottery winners often don’t realise that they’ve matched the jackpot at first, just like a woman from Maryland who left her Multi Match jackpot winner unchecked in her purse, and a man from Rochester in Massachusetts who bought his winning $1 million scratch card from his regular store.Mr Patel said that he has no regrets about his decision, and he stands firm that returning the ticket was the right thing to do. “It felt good to find it and then find them,” he added.Play online at Lottery24.com, and you will be informed in writing of all your wins.