ETA: picture I referred to in post is in the comments section!
So this just happened... I've been rather zealously collecting the "shop, play, win" monopoly game pieces from my local grocery chain. I've even purposely shopped at several different locations in my area, and altered my usual grocery items to items that would award me extra monopoly tickets.
After every shopping trip, I would immediately scan & input my newly acquired game pieces into the "shop play win" app on my phone, and the app would helpfully keep track of exactly which game pieces I had, and which ones I would need to complete a 'row,' thus winning that row's prize. I would then scan every online code and stockpile my fandango/universal/gas tokens, etc.
On top of doing all of the above, I had created a chart by hand so I could also keep track of my game pieces by pen & paper. Perhaps unnecessary, since the app was keeping track, but I am paranoid and like to be thorough anyway.
Well lately almost every single game piece I've received has been a duplicate, and I could see on the app as well as on my own hand written records that I needed only 1 or 2 game pieces on every single 'row.' For example, on the $1,000,000 cash prize I have been only 1 game piece away for a week now.....
So today, after a small shopping trip at a Safeway I had not collected pieces from yet, I got home and immediately began scanning the track markers to see if I had acquired any new pieces, although I was pretty pessimistic by this point and just assumed the pieces would all be dupes.
..... And then that happened. What you see there in the picture. I was in shock. Shaking. More scared than happy or excited. Scared because I have never been a winner. I am one of those people who loses at everything. I was 100% apprehensive and cynical. There's NO way I could have won the best prize in the game. It's just not possible- I'm the unluckiest, lamest loser on the planet. And with that thought I snapped out of my shock and realized it MUST BE A MISTAKE.
SO I grab the bags that I had sorted all my game pieces into. 1 bag for 117CA thru 120CD. The next bag for 121DA thru 124DD. So on and so forth.
I find the 101AA thru 108AH bag and dump all the game pieces out. There's no way the app is right. But how could it be wrong?! I've been inputting every single game piece since day one! But the app must have glitched or something because after digging through the 101 bag, then every single other bag just in case, I realized I didn't have the 108AH piece. Even though at some point I must have had it, because it was scanned onto the app.
And this is when it hit me.
MY DUMBASS HAD THE WINNING PIECE. AND LOST IT.
I LOST THE ONE GAME PIECE THAT WOULD MAKE ME THE MILLION DOLLAR WINNER!!!!!!!!!
SO basically at one point I had it, and somewhere along the way I lost it. So today when I got the truly last missing piece (104AD) I WOULD HAVE, SHOULD HAVE, been the million dollar winner. But because I'm a ditzy clumsy idiot I fucked it all up. My idiocy cost me a million fucking dollars.