BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Months after thinking he threw away a winning Powerball ticket, the ticket is found and gets claimed in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

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The Kentucky Lottery said Mark Perdue bought a Powerball ticket on Oct. 30 at an AM Express. According to lottery officials; he is a regular at the store.

“About a week later, I go back to the store to buy a Diet Mountain Dew when the owner tells me, ‘Congratulations,’” Perdue recalled, according to the Kentucky Lottery. “I said, ‘For what?’ And she said, ‘You won the lottery.’ I said, ‘I wish.’ She said, ‘you did, I have you on video.’”

Perdue and his wife spent months looking for the ticket and were unable to find it, lottery officials said. They thought they threw it out.

“I’ve been beating myself up for three months thinking I threw this ticket away,” Perdue’s wife said. “I did throw a ticket away, but it was an older ticket. Then I convinced myself maybe it was this ticket.”

Perdue is the President of Kiriu USA. The ticket was found when a visitor was in town from another plant earlier this month, WBKO reported. The visitor was going to use a company vehicle. Perdue went to check on the car with the plant manager. When they did, the plant manager opened the car and sat down.

“I look down and saw it,” Perdue said. “I picked it up and I saw October 30th and I said, ‘That’s my ticket!’” Fortunately for him, the company vehicles don’t get used much. According to the news outlet, Perdue thought the ticket must have fallen out the last time he was in that vehicle.

“I don’t know how long it might have sat out there if I hadn’t needed the car.” Perdue said. “I was shaking a little bit.”

The lottery said the couple claimed their tickets at the lottery headquarters the next day and led with a check of $36,000 after taxes. AM Express that sold the ticket will be getting $500 for selling the ticket.

The couple is planning to pay off some bills and maybe go on a trip, WBKO reported.

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