Kentucky man finds Powerball ticket worth $50,000 he misplaced in company vehicle

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Bowling Green man and his wife are celebrating after finding a misplaced Powerball ticket worth $50,000.

Matt Perdue is a regular at the AM Express in Bowling Green, and that's where he bought a ticket for the Oct. 30 Powerball drawing. He didn't think about it again until he returned to the store according to a news release from the Kentucky Lottery.

"About a week later, I go back to the store to buy a Diet Mountain Dew when the owner tells me, 'Congratulations,'" Perdue recalled. "I said, 'for what?' And she said, 'You won the lottery.' I said, 'I wish.' She said, 'you did, I have you on video.'"

So Perdue and his wife began searching for the ticket, thinking it may have been thrown it away.

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

Then, in early February, Perdue -- the President of Kiriu USA -- had a visitor in town from another plant who needed the visitor was going to use a company vehicle. When he walked out with the plant manager to check the vehicle, he spied the ticket in the front seat.

"I look down and saw it [ticket]," Perdue said. "I picked it up and I saw Oct. 30 and I said, 'That’s my ticket!'"

Perdue said the vehicles aren't driven often, and believes the ticket fell out of his pocket the last time he drove it.

"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."

That's when he took a picture of the ticket on his phone and sent it to his wife.

"I was relieved!" she said.

The two showed up at lottery headquarters the following day with the winning ticket in hand. The couple walked away with a check for $36,000 after taxes. They plan to use the money to pay bills and take a trip.

AM Express will receive $500 for selling the winning ticket.

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