07 March 2023 , 17:13
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A lucky lottery winner has claimed a huge sum of money after nearly throwing away his ticket with the rubbish.
The sales worker, named only as Mambo won a $50,000 (£42,000) jackpot.
Mambo says he was about to chuck out the scratchcard because he thought it had already been checked.
The 22-year-old from the community of Temple Hills, Maryland State, US, said: "We were going to throw the ticket away. We are lucky we didn't."
Mambo shared how he had bought $30 (£25) of scratch-offs when he stopped at the convenience store in the city of La Plata, Charles County and decided to try his luck.
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He said: "I had a few bucks in my pocket and I decided to play.”
Mambo and his wife had made two piles of scratched-off tickets - for winners and losers.
He noticed a high jackpot Gold X20 ticket on the loser pile which had already been scratched but decided to check it again.
And to his astonishment, it came up as a winner, which will help the couple find a new home.
He said: "We were both deciding if we should try to get a house in this tough market. We will get one now."
Crain Highway in La Plata store, in Maryland, US, where the lucky ticket was bought (Newsflash)Maryland Lottery added: "Mambo won the game's fifth of nine $50,000 (£41,000) top prizes."
The convenience store where the ticket was bought will receive a $500 (£415) bonus for selling a top prize scratch-off.
The story comes as just last week, a couple were left stunned after a lottery ticket left in their coat pocket (£830,000).
Ana Elizalde, 51, from Lansing, Michigan, US, bought a Powerball lottery and told her husband to keep hold of the ticket ahead of the draw.
However, she never got round to checking the results until her husband found the ticket in his coat pocket a week later.
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Fortunately, he didn't empty his pockets because it turned out to be a huge prize.
Ana said: “I purchased a Powerball ticket as usual, and I gave it to my husband to hold on to.
“A week after the drawing, my husband found the ticket in his coat pocket and realised we had never checked it.”
The couple took the lottery ticket to a local shop to scan it and were given a seven-number shock.
The husband and wife were told to make a claim due to the prize they had won - which left them in complete shock.