Indiana lottery approved $50,000 win for a man whose ticket was torn into pieces by a store employee

• A lottery winner was initially denied a $50,000 Powerball prize because his ticket was torn up.
• A store employee habitually ripped lottery tickets after checking them with the lottery terminal.

The Hoosier Lottery Commission, which oversees the operation of Indiana's official state lottery, approved a man's claim to a $50,000 Powerball prize even though his ticket was ripped up.

Lottery commissioners deliberated over the case of Paul Marshall, who came forward to collect his prize even though a store employee had torn his winning ticket to shreds.

The Lottery Post was the first to report that the five commissioners unanimously approved the claim during a meeting that took place last week in Indianapolis.

The tearing incident occurred when Marshall returned to the store he bought the winning ticket from to validate it.

The store employee tore the ticket out of habit after checking it with the lottery terminal, which printed out a slip with instructions on visiting a prize payment office, per the Lottery Post.

Retailers in Indiana are not authorized to pay out tickets with prizes exceeding $600.

When Marshall went to the claim center and presented the instructions, he was informed that the prize money could not be issued without them seeing the physical ticket first.

Fortunately for Marshall, lottery officials were able to "reconstruct what happened," Chuck Taylor, the lottery director of legal affairs and compliance, said, according to the Lottery Post's reporting on the meeting.

They visited the store and watched video surveillance footage, which confirmed Marshall's account, it reported.

A spokesperson for the Hoosier Lottery Commission confirmed the details of the story to Business Insider, offering no further comment.

While the commissioners voted unanimously to approve Marshall's prize payout, a woman seeking a much smaller prize wasn't so lucky.

Drena Harris, who won $500 on a scratch card, had her claim denied by the commissioners.

After Harris posted her winning ticket on Facebook, one of her followers claimed the prize for themselves, leaving Harris out of pocket.

The lottery refused to pay out the prize twice.