Man finds $500 lottery ticket and returns it to owner. Then he hits the jackpot.

Nbcwashington · May 18, 2026 · 244 words · By Danielle Abreu

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What to know about Man finds $500 lottery ticket and returns it to owner. Then he hits the jackpot.

A South Carolina man won more than half a million dollars in a state lottery game, all thanks to what he says is his good karma.

Claims checked 5

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center86%

Right14%

7 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

A South Carolina man won more than half a million dollars in a state lottery game, all thanks to what he says is his good karma.

Why it matters

The man from Grand Strand told the South Carolina Education Lottery he found a $500 winning lottery ticket two months ago and returned it to its rightful owner, according to a news release from the lottery system.

Common ground

The ticket was a Pick 3 game that the man, who was not identified, said he found on the floor of a gas station store in Myrtle Beach.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Man finds $500 lottery ticket and returns it to owner. Then he hits the jackpot.?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that The ticket was a Pick 3 game that the man... said he found on the floor of a gas station store in Myrtle Beach?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/south-carolina-lottery…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 5 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 4

verified Verified 1

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Claim 1: “The ticket was a Pick 3 game that the man... said he found on the floor of a gas station store in Myrtle Beach.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources specify that the returned ticket was a 'Pick 3' game found on the floor of a Murphy gas station in Myrtle Beach.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — RETURNED definition: 1. having come back from somewhere, or having been sent back: 2. having come back from somewhere…. Learn more.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/returned

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — I returned to my hotel. Mr Platt returned from Canada in 1995. Be Careful! Don't say that someone ' returns back ' to a place. Return is a fairly formal word. In conversation and in less formal writin…
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/returned

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web search NEUTRAL — RETURNED definition: to come back to a former place or state | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples in American English
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/retu…

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Claim 2: “A South Carolina man won more than half a million dollars in a state lottery game”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent web search results confirm a South Carolina man won a jackpot of $586,000, which is more than half a million dollars.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — A South Carolina man returned a lost winning lottery ticket to its rightful owner -- two months later, he hit the jackpot himself.He’s not the only person to strike luck in a gas station. A Michigan m…
https://nypost.com/2026/05/16/us-news/man-wins-over-500k-lot…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — A woman from South Carolina, USA, won half a million dollars thanks to what seemed like a casual slip-up by her husband.That third ticket won her $500,000 (about 6.5 billion soms). The woman intends t…
https://zamin.uz/newsite/en/dunyo/155852-eri-unutdi-aeli-500…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — A South Carolina man's unique lottery strategy recently paid off big time, landing him the $300,000 top prize from a scratch-off ticket.A quarter of the South Carolina Education Lottery's proceeds go …
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/gut-feeling-leads-3000…

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Claim 3: “On April 25, he bought a Palmetto Cash 5 ticket at the same gas station store and matched all five numbers drawn to win that night’s $586,000 jackpot.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources confirm that on April 25, the man won a $586,000 Palmetto Cash 5 jackpot from a ticket purchased at the same gas station.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Weeks later, the man bought a Palmetto Cash 5 ticket at the same store that ended up matching all five numbers drawn in the April 25 drawing to win the $586,000 jackpot.
https://www.ktiv.com/2026/05/14/do-right-thing-man-turns-los…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — A South Carolina man won a $586,000 lottery jackpot two months after returning a stranger’s lost $500 winning ticket. The anonymous winner said he felt good things were coming after reuniting the tick…
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/man-did-thing-returned-strangers-1…

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web search NEUTRAL — On April 25, the man purchased a Palmetto Cash 5 ticket with all five of the winning numbers, securing him the whopping $586,000 jackpot. The man only had a 1 in 850,668 of buying a ticket with all fi…
https://nypost.com/2026/05/16/us-news/man-wins-over-500k-lot…

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Claim 4: “The man from Grand Strand told the South Carolina Education Lottery he found a $500 winning lottery ticket two months ago and returned it to its rightful owner”

CORROBORATED

Three separate web search results confirm that a man from the Grand Strand area returned a $500 winning ticket he found to its rightful owner.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The Grand Strand-area winner told the South Carolina Education Lottery that he found a $500 winning Pick 3 ticket on the floor of a Murphy gas station in front of a Walmart on Dorsett Drive in Myrtle …
https://local12.com/news/nation-world/palmetto-cash-5-man-tu…

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web search NEUTRAL — The player told the South Carolina Education Lottery he found a $500 winning Pick 3 ticket on the floor at the Murphy gas station in front of the Walmart on Dorsett Drive in Myrtle Beach and left his …
https://www.wmbfnews.com/2026/05/13/grand-strand-man-returns…

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verified

Claim 5: “South Carolina is one of few states that allows lottery winners to remain anonymous, no matter matter their earnings.”

VERIFIED

Web search results explicitly state that a winner in South Carolina can remain anonymous, and it is listed alongside other states with similar anonymity laws.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Delaware: Winners are allowed to remain anonymous, regardless of prize size. Kansas: Winners in Kansas can request to remain anonymous.
https://thehill.com/business/5488429-powerball-anonymity-dif…

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web search NEUTRAL — Here’s where you can remain anonymous: Delaware: Winners are allowed to remain anonymous, regardless of prize size.South Carolina: A winner in South Carolina can remain anonymous, despite recent effor…
https://ktla.com/news/can-a-mega-millions-jackpot-winner-rem…

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web search NEUTRAL — The winner, who has elected to remain anonymous, chose the one-time payment cash option, making their prize worth nearly $878,000,000. It is the largest jackpot payout to a single winner in U. S. hist…
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/04/700205319/anonymous-mega-mill…

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.