Last lottery ticket in the roll earns man $50,000 prize

Feb. 5 (UPI) -- A Maryland man won a $50,000 prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket that was the very last one in the roll.

The Brooklyn Park man told Maryland Lottery officials he always buys multiple scratch-off tickets at a time to increase his odds of winning.

The man said he followed this strategy when he visited the 7-Eleven store in Brooklyn Park and saw there were only three $50,000 Cash scratch-off tickets left in the store's roll.

"I saw that the roll only had a few tickets left, so I bought all three," he said. "I scanned the first two; they were not winners but that third ticket sure was!"

The player said he thought he was dealing with a scanner malfunction when it told him "go to the lottery" instead of giving a prize amount. A second attempt at a scan had him suspecting he might have a big win.

"I was so amped, but I still wasn't sure," the winner said. "So, I went back inside to have the cashier check it."

The clerk confirmed the man was holding a $50,000 ticket.

The man said he went home and asked his wife to check whether the ticket was a winner.

"She looked at it and said, 'Nope,' and tossed it to the side," he recalled. "I told her to look again."

The winner said he will use his prize money to make some home improvements.