An industrial painter from Denver, Colorado got the surprise of his life earlier this week when he discovered he'd won a $1 million prize on a losing ticket.
Thirty-year-old Allen B, discovered the good news on Wednesday, October 15, 2014, when Colorado Lottery representatives turned up at his place of work, carrying a large ceremonial check and told him: "You just won one million dollars on a Second Chance drawing."
Second chance drawings are only available to players who have registered at the Colorado Lottery website. Once registered players can then access an online dashboard and enter the numbers from their losing tickets into a special online drawing, for a chance to win a prize of up to $1 million.
Allen is a passionate lottery player with a soft spot for $20 "Monopoly Millionaire" scratch-off tickets, but his ticket-buying habit has been a constant source of irritation for his wife, Lorena. At one point Allen had collected 256 of the scratchers—all of them losers.
"He just kept bringing them home and I was like, 'You gotta stop'," Lorena said.
Despite his constant dreaming of a big win, Allen admitted it was quite a shock when the dream became a reality.
"I was thinking maybe it’s $10,000 and I started counting the zeroes and kept going, and I realized it was a million dollars—and it still hasn’t sunk in yet," Allen said.
As for his plans for the money, Allen said he intends to pay off the debt on his house and cars and set up a college fund for his young son.
