Spring cleaning nets man wrappers, receipts - and $2.6 million lotto fortune

I thought I was lucky when I found a crumpled and forgotten $1 bill in my jeans pocket this week. But not quite as lucky as Gordon Carnese, who discovered a lotto ticket worth $2.6 million in his car's glove box.

The 63-year-old Portland, Ore., man was cleaning out his glove compartment and came across a bunch of old lottery tickets, the local NBC affiliate reports. When he took them in to be scanned, the clerk at Dotty's Deli told him he hit a jackpot off a $5 Quick Pick he bought on Dec. 8, 2008.

Instead of a lump-sum, Carnese opted to take 25 yearly payments of about $70,000 after taxes -- not a bad decision. Also not a bad decision: Checking your lottery tickets more frequently, Carnese.

That reminds me, I have to claim my $3 from a scratch-off ticket I picked up on a whim the other evening. Because that's a smart way to be spending money.