Man rescues $50K lottery ticket he’d trashed

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Updated: February 9, 2012 11:07PM

CLINTON (AP) — Lottery officials say a western Indiana man who threw out a $50,000 lottery ticket he thought was worthless is lucky he hadn’t taken out his trash.

Hoosier Lottery spokesman Al Larsen says Ernest Scott III realized Feb. 3 that the Lucky 5 ticket he’d thrown away the day before had in fact matched the numbers chosen in the Feb. 2 drawing.

Scott and his family scrambled to the kitchen trash can in their Clinton home and scoured it for the tossed ticket. They found the ticket soggy and stained beneath coffee grounds but dried it out.

Scott and his wife Kathy turned in their ticket Tuesday at Hoosier Lottery headquarters in Indianapolis. The couple may use their winnings to build a garage and take their four kids to Florida.