The supermarket where the winning $1 million lotto ticket was lost.

Last week a $1 Million winner in our country's lotto was about to claim his prize from the lottery headquarters.

He bought some beer from the supermarket in the photo to celebrate later.

And while he was loading it into his car, guess where he put the ticket...

"I got back to my car and as I opened the door, I put the box of beers in the back seat and, for some reason, put the Lotto ticket on the roof of my car," the man said.

It was in an envelope. After all, this was one valuable piece of paper!

And then he drove off, forgetting all about it until he reached his home.

You'd expect this story to end badly.

Here's what actually happened...

The man returned and frantically searched the supermarket car park. 

No luck.

Maybe it had been stolen.

Then he decided to retrace his steps - only to find it sitting in the middle of the road.

"I couldn't believe it was just sitting there," he said.

"Now I can say I am truly a lucky person."

The lesson is that we're all capable of forgetting things in the excitement of the moment.

Your winning ticket is available for anyone to claim unless you take this step immediately you win:

Write and sign your name on the back of the ticket.

It should be the first action you take.

Here's some more tips for protecting the most valuable piece of paper you'll ever own:

1. Give your tickets a home each time. Find a spot for your tickets and always put them there - except when they are not going with you to the lottery store for checking.

2. Always follow the same routine. After you buy your tickets, put them in the same place while you're still at the store... your wallet, bag or even an envelope. Put them in a distinctive container so you don't throw them out in a cleanup.

3. Never throw your tickets away. It takes just a second's distraction and you could misread an important number on your ticket. If you threw it away then, thinking it was worthless, that's a loss you'll always regret. 

4. Always get your tickets checked by the store. Then place them in a separate place to your current tickets so you don't get them mixed up.

There are very few other single pieces of paper that can represent millions of dollars, so treat every ticket as a winning one until you find out for certain.