Luckiest Man Alive Wins $1 Million After Store Clerk Hands Him Wrong Scratch Ticket
A distracted gas station manager inadvertently helped a Massachusetts man win $1 million when he handed him a different scratch ticket than the one he asked for.
"I was a little distracted, talking on the phone, stocking the tobacco and taking customers at the same time," Brian Salinas told the Taunton Daily Gazette. "I realized I gave him the wrong ticket and I said, 'I'll switch it, I'll put it back.'"
But Richard Brown of Taunton didn't mind that he'd been given a $5 "Sizzlin' 7s" ticket instead of his usual $5 "Blue Ice 7s."
And it's that laissez-faire attitude that ended up winning him the jackpot.
"I'm kind of happy about that, to know someone actually won a million dollars," said Salinas, whose Valero gas station stands to earn a $10,000 commission for selling the winning ticket. "He can go out and buy himself a new vehicle take care of bills and his family."
According to the Massachusetts State Lottery, Brown declined to receive his prize in multiple installments, choosing instead to go with a lump sum payment of $650,000, or approximately $430,000 after taxes.