Man throws away, recovers $10,000 lottery tickets

ROME, Ga. -(WAGA)-A north Georgia man considers himself pretty lucky after winning the lottery--twice--and coming very close to losing the tickets.

Cedric Jackson said he has played the lottery every day for five years. He picks the same numbers for weeks until he wins a prize.

Friday, he thought he had missed the winning Cash 4 combination by just one digit.

"When I came into the store the next morning," Jackson recalled. "I was like, 'No, I don't want those numbers back. You can just throw them away.'"

Later in the day, Jackson was talking to a friend about how close he had come to the jackpot, when he realized he actually had won.

"I ran back to the car. So, I went there looking for my numbers, but I didn't have it. So I said, 'Uh oh. I [threw] it away,'" Jackson said.

Jackson rushed back to Rick's Food Mart on N. Broad Street to search the dumpster outside for his winners.

"It was pretty hot that day inside that dumpster," laughed Jackson.

The ticket was not inside, but employees continued to search. Sunday, a clerk found both the $5,000 tickets inside a trashcan in a back room.

"That was a blessing," said Jackson, who claimed his prize Monday.

Jackson returned to the store to share $100 with Rick's. He plans to return to the store for tickets every day.

"Today could be the day again," he exclaimed.