SPARTA, Tenn. (WATE) — A Tennessee man was able to retrieve his million-dollar winning lottery ticket after losing it in the parking lot of an auto parts store.

Nick Slatten purchased a Tennessee Cash lottery ticket at the Village Market in Sparta on March 11, ahead of that night’s drawing. After checking the winning numbers the following morning, he realized the ticket was worth $1,178,746.

“I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it,” Slatten said. “I can’t express it. It was something else.”

Slatten went about his day running errands after sharing the good news with his fiancée. Shortly after taking his brother to an O’Reilly Auto Parts Store, he realized something was very wrong.

It was about an hour later, Slatten said, when he realized he didn’t have the ticket anymore.

“I couldn’t find it anywhere,” he said.

Slatten retraced his steps and pulled into the O’Reilly’s parking lot where he saw it lying on the ground, right next to the driver’s side door of another vehicle.

“It’s a million dollar ticket, and someone stepped right over it,” Slatten said.

The Tennessee Lottery reminds players that tickets are bearer instruments, like cash. If a player loses his ticket, anyone can claim it if it is unsigned. The lottery recommends players to sign their ticket immediately after purchase to identify it as theirs and to help prevent someone else from cashing it, in the event that it is lost or stolen.

Slatten’s ticket is one of five tickets worth $1 million or more sold in Tennessee this month and the 310th ticket sold worth $1 million or more since the lottery began on Jan. 20, 2004.

Slatten and his fiancée will continue working and have plans to buy a house of their own and better vehicles as well as investing. Mainly, their plan is to live life with “not a whole lot of worries,” he said.