Vietnam vet finds winning lottery ticket he thought he'd lost

Vietnam vet awarded his lottery winnings | Photo: 22News

Napolean Elvord, a Vietnam veteran, owns the winning ticket for the $14.3 million Wisconsin Megabucks jackpot on January 14 but it took him three days to realize he won. He said he temporarily lost the lottery ticket and so he did not know he hit the jackpot.

Luckily, after three days of searching for it, Elvord found the lost ticket on a table in his home.

According to a report by the Wisconsin State Journal, the lottery regular also accidentally placed a bet on the wrong lottery game.

Elvord finally collected his winnings last Friday. He opted for a $10.2 million lump sum cash payment, which will come out to $6.87 million after taxes.

Asked by 22News about his plans with the money, the semi-retired construction worker said,

"I hadn't really made any plans yet, but I do look at the economy and think about the people that have lost homes that had homes and had jobs."

He added, "And I'm into construction, I like remodeling, fixing up things and I'm looking at possibly doing something in that area to re-sell homes and bring people back into their housing area."

According to reports, Elvord, who has been receiving dialysis for five years, is also spending some of the winnings on health expenses. He plans to move to his native state of Texas as well.