Man’s mistake while buying lottery ticket earns him US$2 million

MICHIGAN: A Michigan man said he made a mistake while buying his lottery ticket that turned a US$1 million jackpot into a US$2 million payday.

Samir Mazahem, 56, of Dearborn Heights, told Michigan Lottery officials he accidentally bought two identical tickets for the June 9 Mega Millions drawing using the lottery’s website, United Press

International (UPI) reported Friday.

“I went online and bought a ticket using numbers that are family birthdays, I forgot to save the numbers as favourites in the app, so I went back in and set them up as favourites so

I could easily play them in the future,” UPI quoted Mazahem said.

He said repeating the process had an unforeseen side effect.

“What I didn’t realise, is that meant I would be buying a second ticket with the same numbers.

“Once I figured out I had bought two tickets with identical numbers, I was a little bummed but didn’t think much about it”, he said.

The mistake proved fortunate, however, when he matched the five white balls drawn, 01-0509-10-23, earning each ticket a US$1 million prize.

“I recently logged into the app to check on some tickets I had bought, and that is when I saw I had two US$1 million prizes pending. Saying that I was stunned is an understatement. I couldn’t believe it was real. It took several days for the reality to set in that my mistake had paid off to the tune of US$2 million”, Mazahem said.

The winner said he plans to buy a new home with his winnings and put the rest into savings.

Winning is exciting and gives me some comfort knowing that when I retire, I will have money in the bank, he added.