A mystery solved and a mistake made public after an unclaimed Grey Cup jackpot finally met its winner.

On Tuesday, Charles Ritchot stepped forward to claim his prize; one he initially thought he had won – then lost.

At Investors Group Field on Nov. 29, Ritchot heard the PA announcer call the 50/50 winning ticket. The lucky number matched Ritchot’s, and the Manitoba man decided to go home and tell his wife the news in person.

But when the couple checked the winning number on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers website the next day, it didn't match his ticket.

"So then I carried it over, and threw it in the garbage," said Ritchot.

After a few minutes, Ritchot had second thoughts and reclaimed it from the trash bin. He decided to keep the ticket as a memento of the time he almost won.

Then he waited to hear who'd really won, but no one came forward.

It turns out the Winnipeg Football Club had made a mistake; someone input the wrong number on its website.

On Dec. 8, when no one had claimed the prize, Ritchot checked the site again.

This time, the numbers aligned and the football fan had nabbed a victory.

Still, Ritchot said it was almost an irreversible $180,000 error.

On Tuesday, the Liquor and Gaming Authority of Manitoba, which oversees charitable contests such as this, said it's concerned about the situation and launching an investigation to find out how this could have happened.

In a statement to CTV News, the Winnipeg Football Club writes:

“The 50/50 number was announced correctly by the PA announcer late in the Grey Cup game and posted correctly on the video boards at that time. However, when the winning number was posted on our website that evening, two digits were accidentally transposed. This error on the website was corrected the next morning when it was identified.

An error was made because the Winnipeg Football Club did not inform the public that the incorrect number was posted overnight on the website.

Our processes will be reviewed with training for staff to ensure this doesn't happen again.

We would like to apologize to Mr. Ritchot for the confusion, and we are very happy he kept his ticket and was able to collect his prize.”