Man Gets $97K Surprise When Cashing Lottery Ticket in Hartford

HARTFORD, CT — A north central Connecticut lottery player had a $97,000 surprise when he went to collect his winnings on a Cash5 ticket last week.

Make that $97,028 — the difference between what Armando Ortiz thought he won versus what he actually won.

Ortiz told Connecticut Lottery officials he wasn’t able to catch the July 22 drawing and had asked his mother if she would watch it and write down the winning numbers.

The next day, he compared the Cash5 numbers she had written to those printed on his tickets, and one ticket had matched four of the five winning numbers for a $300 prize.

That turned out to be an oopsie.

“I went to the retailer and scanned my ticket in the ticket checker and thought, something’s wrong. Instead of $300, it said $97,328,” Ortiz said. “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.'"

His ticket matched all five of the winning Cash5 numbers drawn on July 22 — 6 - 15 - 22 - 23 - 33.

In total, 3,229 winning tickets were sold statewide, with prizes ranging in value from $2 to the $97,328 Ortiz won.

“The funny thing is, my mother apologized for getting one of the numbers wrong. She wrote down 28 instead of 23. She said she couldn’t see well without having her glasses on,” Ortiz said with a laugh.

Ortiz said the unexpected prize money will be put to good use.

“I’m going to fix my car, give some money to my family and bank the rest," he said.

Ortiz purchased his Cash5 winning ticket at Mobil On The Run, 234 Washington Street in Hartford. Mobile On The Run will receive a $1,000 bonus from the CT Lottery for selling the winning ticket.

The overall odds of winning Cash5 are 1 in 72.1. The chance of winning the top prize is 1 in 324,632.

Photo Credit: CT Lottery

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