Dad pushes wrong button on lottery vending machine — and wins top prize. ‘Fantastic’
A dad’s “mistake” during his morning lottery routine led to a big win in Maryland, officials said.
He stopped at a gas station on his way into work as a landscaper the way he does each day when it happened, lottery officials said in a March 20 news release.
“Gas, if the truck needs it, coffee and a scratch ticket — that’s my morning routine,” he told officials, adding that “he knew exactly what game he wanted as he approached the Lottery vending machine” at a Wawa store in Bel Air. “I was staring at my ticket but, for some reason, hit the Monopoly button.”
The $5 instant game went on sale in mid-January, offering eight $50,000 top prizes, officials said in the release.
At first he didn’t even notice the match, and when he did he thought he saw $1,000 as the prize — “which was fantastic,” he told officials.
He got a chance to “really study his ticket” once he was back in his truck.
“I wanted to make sure that I’d really won $1,000 before I called my wife,” he said.
That’s when it dawned on him that he’d won the $50,000 top prize, and “everything got very still,” he told officials.
“I didn’t move, just stared at the ticket for a long time,” he said. “I stopped breathing, I think.”
Now he’ll be able to pay off his truck and put the rest into his family’s savings.
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 11:54 AM with the headline "Dad pushes wrong button on lottery vending machine — and wins top prize. ‘Fantastic’."
