Everyone dreams of winning big in Vegas.
But imagine hitting the jackpot - only to pack your bags and head home without collecting your winnings.
That's what happened to Robert Taylor, who left the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino last month with no idea that he had won a progressive jackpot of $229,368 on a slot machine.
Taylor - who is a resident of Arizona - became the subject of a two-week manhunt for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, after they realized that he had not collected his winnings.
CBS News reports that Taylor had won big whilst gambling on a slot machine on the evening of January 8.
However, he wasn't alerted to the fact he had won because the machine malfunctioned due to a "communication error".
It was only at a later review that the Nevada Gaming Control Board first realized that Taylor should have been rewarded with a whopping jackpot.
But by then, the holidaymaker had already packed his bags and returned home to Arizona.
To make things worse, the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino was unable to identify Taylor. So the Board had no choice but to launch an investigation into tracking him down and getting him his winnings.
In a statement, the Gaming Control Board said that they searched for Taylor by checking surveillance video, conducting witness interviews, studying electronic purchase records, and reviewing ride-sharing data.
Lucky for Taylor, the Board was successful, and after more than two weeks of painstaking investigations, they finally identified him. On January 28 he was given the happy news that he had won almost a quarter of a million dollars and told he could come and collect his winnings at any time.
The chief of the Board's Enforcement Division James Taylor commended agents in a statement.
He congratulated them for "ensuring that the public trust in the gaming industry remains strong by spending countless hours over two weeks to ensure that a patron is awarded winnings owed to him."
"This has been a great example of government working together for the benefit of the public," he added.
