SC man forgot he bought lottery ticket, now he’s overwhelmed to win six-digit jackpot

A Midlands man bought a lottery ticket then left the unscratched game in his car for days eventually found out he’d been driving around with a $300,000 winner.

He uncovered the six-figure jackpot two days after buying the $10 ticket and a bottle of water at the Pitt Stop gas station/convenience store on Wilson Boulevard in Blythewood, South Carolina Education Lottery officials said Monday in a news release. That’s near Exit 24 on Interstate 77.

“I threw the ticket in the car’s console and forgot about it,” he said in the release.

Once he remembered the ticket, scratched it, and saw how much he won, he drove straight to the Lottery’s Claims Center in Columbia to collect his winnings, according to the release.

“I was overwhelmed with joy,” he said.

The man will be allowed to retain some privacy, as South Carolina is one of eight states — along with Delaware, Kansas, Georgia, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio and Texas — that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous.

He didn’t share any plans on spending his newfound windfall.

The odds of winning the top prize playing the $300,000 Fun Fortune game are 900,000-to-1, according to the release. Two more of the game’s six top prizes remain unclaimed, lottery officials said.

The Pitt Stop in Blythewood will receive a commission of $3,000 for selling the claimed winning ticket, according to the release.