Landscaper finds $1m scratch lottery ticket while raking leaves Lucky ... A landscaper in the US found a winning US$1 million scratchie ticket while raking leaves. A LANDSCAPER picking up grimy leaves on a suburban Long Island street after Hurricane Sandy stumbled upon a million-dollar winning lottery ticket. This was someone else's luck, but my ticket! Marvin Martinez, 27, told The New York Post. "My co-worker was blowing the leaves and I was collecting them when I saw the ticket hiding between wet leaves," he said of his November 2012 find in the neighbourhood of Bayville. I still don't know what made me pick it up. But he did and saw that all three numbers on the "Win $1000 a Week for Life" scratch card appeared to be winners. "Whoever threw it away probably didn't realise there was a prize," said Mr Martinez, who still lives with his mother in a Sandy-ravaged home in Hicksville. I took it home and showed it to my mom but she didn't believe it. It was so wet that they could barely read the ticket "so I left it to dry underneath a lamp," Mr Martinez said. He tried to verify he had a winning ticket at a New York Lottery customer service center on Long Island - but the lottery office had lost its power because of Sandy. When it finally reopened, he explained what happened. They asked me a lot of questions and said they would have to ­investigate. I forgot about it," he said. Three weeks ago, he got a call to meet with Lottery officials because no one else had claimed the ticket - and in this case, "finders keepers" applies. "A standard and thorough internal security investigation found no reason to believe that the ticket wasn't rightfully the property of Mr Martinez," a spokesman for the New York State Gaming Commission said. There was no ­report of theft or of a ticket being misplaced. In instances such as these, it's standard practice for the Lottery to require a one-year waiting period before awarding the prize in case anyone else comes forward. But no one else came forward. Mr Martinez's win was announced Friday at a Lottery press conference. He got married last month, before he knew he had won - and didn't tell his wife of his good fortune until Friday, after reporters came to his home. "She's in shock," he said. I can't believe. I can't believe it," said Miriam Benitez, 24, who works at a Subway sandwich shop. Mr Martinez elected to take a lump-sum payment of US$779,106 ($875,587). After taxes, it's still a cool US$515,612. "This won't change the way I live my life," he said. I'm still going to keep working six days a week. Mr Martinez, who came to America from El Salvador six years ago, plans to send money back home, buy a house for him and his wife, help his mother pay off Sandy repairs "and maybe switch jobs and become a truck driver." "My wife and I didn't go on a honeymoon, so maybe we'll take a trip to Miami or something," he said. I want to keep living a normal life. This won't change us.