ROME, Ga. -- A north Georgia man has recovered $10,000 worth of lottery tickets he had thrown away in the trash.

Multiple media outlets report that Cedric Jackson on Friday thought that he had narrowly missed winning a $5,000 jackpot on two lottery tickets.

Jackson, who lives in Rome, Georgia, says he asked a convenience store employee to throw the tickets away Saturday, but later that day realized his tickets had in fact been winners. Jackson returned to the store. After going through the store's trash can and dumpster in vain, Jackson left the store empty-handed.

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It wasn't until later in the day that the employee, Ricky Singh, remembered he had thrown the tickets into a trash can inside an inner office. Singh called Jackson to tell him he'd found the winning tickets.