This man won $273M after a person returned his lost lottery ticket

When Mike Weirsky got distracted after buying lottery tickets at a QuickChek store in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, he left them on the counter. Little did Weirsky know that he had just left behind the Mega Millions jackpot-winning ticket, worth a whopping $273 million. Luckily, a good Samaritan who happened upon the tickets after Weirsky’s departure returned them to the store to hold onto in case the rightful owner returned for their tickets.

Weirsky did, indeed,  return the next day and verify that the tickets were his. Lottery officials said that if the stranger had opted to take the tickets for themselves and sign them, they would have been entitled to the jackpot. Weirsky is so grateful for the kindness of this person that he intends to pay it forward by cutting them in on part of his winnings.

“I’m looking for the guy that handed them in, I want to thank him,” Weirsky said at a news conference, according to the AP. “I’m going to give him something, but I’m going to keep that private.”

Watch him talk about his incredible experience in this clip posted to YouTube by NBC News:

Weirsky, who got divorced last year and has been unemployed and unable to find work, also plans to get a new truck with the money, and to buy his mom a new vehicle and remodel her home.

“After that, I’m basically locked into what my lawyer and other people I have working for me tell me I can do,” he said.

When it comes to his two incredible strokes of good luck — in both hitting the jackpot and having a stranger return the winning tickets — Weirsky is still in disbelief.

“I was down and now all of a sudden, I’m way up,” he said. “I don’t know how much higher I can get!”

As it turns out, Weirsky’s guardian angel is Phil Campolo, an employee at the QuickChek store where Weirsky left the tickets behind. Campolo remains humble about his decision to turn the tickets in.

“My parents raised me to be a good person, honest, sincere,” Campolo said. “I try to take that with me everywhere I go.”