Man accidentally buys identical Powerball tickets, wins twice

Jan. 22 (UPI) -- A Delaware man who accidentally bought two identical Powerball tickets for the same drawing had the mistake pay off when they each won him a $50,000 prize.

The 61-year-old Newark man told Delaware Lottery officials he asked his son to fill out some playslips for the Jan. 18 Powerball drawing, but when he got to Malin's Market in Newark he realized he only had enough money to buy three of his intended four tickets.

The man returned the next day for his fourth ticket and accidentally used the same numbers as one of his other tickets.

"When I returned to the store after the drawing, I couldn't believe I had won when I scanned the first ticket," the man said. "A few hours later, when I scanned the second ticket and saw it had also won, I was shaking. It was unbelievable."

The man ended up winning $100,000 -- $50,000 for each winning ticket.

The winner said he plans to use some of his winnings to pay off his bills and put the rest into savings.