If a birth date is lucky, then by logic a man with two birth dates must be doubly lucky, right? That appears true for a 79-year-old Gaithersburg man who claimed a $1.9 million jackpot prize from the May 7 Maryland Lottery drawing.
A paperwork fluke gave the winner two birth dates when he was born in Louisiana in 1939. For most of his life, the Montgomery County resident used the incorrect April 23 date and only recently officially updated his vital records to reflect his actual April 21 birth date. The Maryland Lottery fan considers both dates lucky and plays them on a variety of games, including Multi-Match.
The lucky player discovered the astounding result the day after the drawing, when he returned home between work shifts. “I was scanning the newspaper and flipped to the Lottery section first, and when I saw the numbers my eyes just grew bigger and bigger,” he said. The astonished player immediately called his wife to share the sensational news. “When I told her how much we had won, at first she didn’t believe me!”
The winning couple elected to take the prize’s cash option, which totaled $1.45 million before taxes. The happy pair are planning to discuss the windfall with a financial adviser and may use the funds to pay off bills and donate to their church.