A Lincoln County man is $1 million richer, thanks to a Salina gas station employee. The lottery winner's brother accidentally dropped the winning ticket at a gas station over the weekend, before the numbers were checked.

Employees ran the ticket that was dropped and realized they needed to get it back to its owner. Fortunately, the rightful owner happened to drive back by the store a couple of hours later. The lottery says that's when the worker stopped him and returned the winning ticket.

Eyewitness News on Tuesday called more than 30 gas stations in Salina, trying to find the person who returned the million-dollar ticket. There are a lot of rumors about which gas station it was, but nobody knows for sure and the Kansas Lottery isn't saying.

The winning ticket was actually sold about 40 miles away in Lincoln, a town of a little more than 1,200 people.

Katie Black is a clerk at the town's Mity Mart, the store that actually sold the million-dollar ticket.

"I am so excited for this person," Black says of the big winner. "I wish I knew who it was but they choose to stay anonymous and we really do respect that."

As with most small towns, word travels fast in Lincoln. Just about everyone in the close-knit community wonders who among them could be a new millionaire.

"We've been racking our brains all morning thinking, 'who have I sold a Mega Millions ticket to in the last week?'" Black says.

The convenience store in Lincoln would not be celebrating the sale without the help of another gas station somewhere in Salina.

And now gas station employees in Salina want to know how is behind the good deed that made sure the owner of the winning ticket gets his payday.

"It's just nice to know there are still good Samaritans around, not just pure greed," says Snak Atak clerk Shelly Thomas.