An 83-year-old Massachusetts man says he found a $1 million scratch-off lottery ticket in a convenience store trash bin.

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Bob Penta, manager of the White Hen Pantry, in Blackstone, a town of 9,000 near the Rhode Island border, said Edward St. John is a frequent customer who sifts thought the trash outside the store -- and that he fished out a $1,000 winning lottery ticket last year, the Boston Globe reported Sunday.

"He came in and showed me the one he found in the trash for a million dollars," Penta told WJAR-TV in Providence, R.I. "I verified it, and I verified it on the lottery machine, too."

Dan Doyle, a lawyer, says he's representing a client who claims he or she owned the ticket. However, the Web site for the state lottery commission says a lottery ticket is a "bearer instrument" and anyone who signs the back and presents the ticket is the winner.