A lucky punter has scooped a $50,000 lottery prize after accidentally putting too much money into a vending machine and ending up with a winning ticket.
The winner, Carlos Medina, purchased the prize ticket in the city of Laurel, in the US state of Maryland.
A statement obtained from the Maryland Lottery on Wednesday, said the auto business employee had only meant to buy $20 (£6.25) worth of tickets.
But he ended up buying $40 (£32.50) after he pressed the wrong button on the vending machine.
And one of the tickets turned out to be worth $50,000 (£40,500).
The Maryland Lottery said: "Hitting the wrong button on a Lottery self-serve vending machine led a Bowie man to make a series of decisions that gave him a $50,000 prize and a trip to the Lottery Winner's Circle in Baltimore."
They added that the lucky winner had "visited Royal Farms £244 in Laurel to buy food, charge up his electric vehicle and buy a few Powerball tickets for the December 10 draw."
The lottery operator explained he had meant to buy $20 worth of tickets from the machine, but he accidentally hit the button that triggered the machine to cash him out, and the machine printed a $20 voucher instead.
Realising he now had $40 worth of credit on the vending machine, Carlos decided to buy four $10 Powerball quick-pick tickets and went home.
The lottery operator continued: "Around 2am, he finished painting a bathroom in his home's basement and remembered to check his Powerball tickets. First, he Googled, 'Who won the Powerball?' using his phone.
"Seeing that no one won the jackpot that night, he checked the winning numbers on his phone against those on his tickets.
"And one of those tickets delivered a $50,000 prize! He was so excited that he woke up his brother to share the news."
The lottery official said the lucky winner plans to put his prize money in his bank account and save it, although he has not ruled out going on holiday.
