Emily Leach, 2-Time Lottery Winner, Loses Winnings In Act Of Goodwill

Mega-millions lottery winner Emily Leach perhaps spread a little too much love last month when she gave a stranger a $100 bill in a random act of kindness.

She said that during the exchange, she inadvertently handed the man a newly-purchased lottery ticket that won $260,000, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Now, she's asking for the ticket back.

"That's my ticket," Leach told the Mercury News. "He knows it's my ticket. I feel like I'm going to come off as a huge, huge bitch if I say, 'You need to give me my ticket back.'"

In January, Leach won $1 million from a ticket she purchased at the convenience store in Mountain View, Calif., and continued buying tickets there over the next couple months in the hopes luck might strike twice, ABC News reports.

Leach told reporters that on Monday, she learned that a man had come into the convenience store over the weekend to reclaim a ticket he bought earlier -- the same day he had run into Leach. He allegedly told employees that Leach's good luck must have rubbed off on him, and that's when she realized that the ticket must have been the one she handed over.

Now, the California Lottery Commission is investigating Leach's claim by reviewing security camera footage, according to the United Press International.

"She said she had the ticket in her hand and maybe it got mixed in with the money she gave this person," Alex Traverso, a spokesman for the lottery commission, told reporters. "They're going to look at the video and see if she's the one actually buying the ticket. If no one else is in the picture, that puts things firmly in her favor."

Leach gained national attention when she won her $1 million prize in January. NBC News reported that the windfall allowed her pay off over $300,000 in medical bills she had accumulated while being treated for a pancreatic tumor, for which she had no health insurance to cover.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated the value of the second lottery ticket. The ticket is in fact worth $260,000.

Check out NBC News' January report on Leach, below: