Armando Ortiz thought he won $300 in the Connecticut Lottery last month but was stunned to find out he actually won more than $97,000 after his mother wrote down the winning numbers for him incorrectly, game officials said last week.
Ortiz said he purchased a ticket from the Connecticut Cash5 game in Hartford and asked his elderly mother to write down the winning numbers for him on July 22 since he could not catch the televised drawing, Connecticut Lottery officials said in a press release.
Ortiz matched the winning numbers of 6-15-22-23-33 for a prize of $97,328. But when Ortiz's mother wrote down the numbers for her son, she wrote 28 instead of 23 because of her blurry vision, leading him to believe he missed the jackpot by one number.
"The funny thing is, my mother apologized for getting one of the numbers wrong," Ortiz said with a laugh to lottery officials last Friday. "She wrote down 28 instead of 23. She said she couldn't see well without her glasses on."
When Ortiz returned to the Mobil On The Run convenience store to pick up what he thought was his $300 winnings, he was taken aback by what he saw, Connecticut Lottery said.
"I went to the retailer and scanned my ticket in the ticket checker and thought, something's wrong," Ortiz told lottery officials. "Instead of $300, it said $97,328. So, I asked the retailer for a print out of the winning numbers to double check. When he gave me the printout he said, 'You didn't win $300, you won the top prize — $97,328.'"
Ortiz said no worries because he already has plans for his surprise winnings.
"I'm going to fix my car, give some money to my family, and bank the rest," he told the Connecticut Lottery.
That will come after taxes of course, with the Connecticut Lottery withholding 24 percent of the winning in federal taxes and another 6.99 percent in state taxes, according to the organization.
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