WELLINGTON (AP) – A South Florida man says he made a half-million-dollar mistake.

Sixty-nine-year-old Louis Tolentino of Wellington says he lost a winning scratch-off lottery ticket valued at $500,000. A clerk at the store where he bought the ticket Wednesday confirms it was a winner and that Tolentino was directed to cash it in at the lottery office in West Palm Beach.

But somewhere between the store and the lottery office, the Gold Rush ticket disappeared.

Tolentino says he panicked and retraced his steps, but it still hasn’t turned up. Without his signature on it, anyone who finds it can turn it in. Now, he’s just hoping it lands in the hands of a Good Samaritan.