28 February 2023 , 19:15
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A man has won big on the lottery after accidentally buying two of the same ticket.
The lucky player, who has decided to remain anonymous, won $240,338 after inadvertently playing the same set of numbers twice.
The 67-year-old man, from Oakland County, MIchigan, US, was leaving town for a few days so bought a multi-draw ticket covering his time away.
When he got back, he bought another ticket for February 6, not realising he was already covered that day from the multi-draw.
So both tickets ended up matching the winning numbers drawn that night - 04-10-12-20-30. Meaning he won two prizes of $120,169.
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He has pledged to put the money towards his son's education (Getty Images)He said: “Every week I purchase a multi-draw Fantasy 5 ticket with the same set of numbers I have been playing for four years.
“I was going out of town, so I bought a muti-draw ticket to cover the drawings while I was gone. There was some overlap on the drawings of the new ticket I had purchased and the multi-draw ticket I had purchased a few days prior.
“I logged into my Lottery account after the drawing to check my tickets and I couldn’t believe it when I saw a $240,338 prize pending. When I realized that I had won on one of the drawings both tickets covered to win $120,169 on each, I couldn’t help but laugh!”
He bought both of his winning tickets online at the Michigan Lottery website.
The winner visited the Lottery headquarters to claim his big prize, which he said will go towards his son's education and into savings.
Fantasy 5 players select five numbers from one to 39. Players who match all five Fantasy 5 numbers drawn win a jackpot that starts at $100,000. Fantasy 5 drawings are held seven days a week at 7:29 pm.
Thankfully picking up his winnings will be relatively smooth sailing.
Meanwhile, in another part of the US, a lottery body has stood by the decision to award $2.04bn prize money despite another man claiming he bought the winning ticket but it was stolen.
Jose Rivera filed a lawsuit against the declared winner, Edwin Castro, the California Lottery and another man named "Reggie", who he believes stole the winning ticket worth $2.04 billion (£1.7 billion).
Mr Rivera claimed he bought the ticket from an auto repair shop called Joe's Service Center in Altadena, California, and Reggie stole it from him on the same day.
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He then said that he contacted Reggie to try and get the ticket back, but without success.