A lucky Maryland couple have won $2 million after unwittingly purchasing two identical tickets for the same Powerball drawing.
“I looked at it and I went to the Powerball site,” he told Maryland Lottery Officials. “I saw the numbers and I said, ‘No!’”
The Annapolis man said the miracle draw happened after he visited a 7-Eleven store on Bestgate Road and used the lottery terminal’s replay feature.
The man used the feature to scan old tickets for winners and print new tickets with the same numbers — but didn’t consider that he’d be sitting on a gold mine.
A number of the tickets had the same sets of numbers, leaving him with duplicates.
After hearing the 7-Eleven had sold two $1 million winning tickets he quickly went back to check his stack.
At first the man realized they had a number of $4 winners.
As he continued to scan, he was shocked when he scanned a ticket that matched the first five numbers from the drawing earning him $1 million.
Overjoyed he called his wife and recalled the pair “had our crying moment” but weren’t prepared for what was about to happen.
“He joked about it,” his wife recalled with a smile. “He said, ‘I still have tickets to go through. What if I have the second million-dollar ticket?”
And before they knew it they were holding onto another $1 million winning ticket.
“It was mind blowing. I had no idea I doubled it,” the father of two said.
The couple said they plan to invest the winnings.
