Man Accidentally Wins Lottery - Man Accidentally Wins Lottery - Man wins lottery by mistake, A Madison, Wisc., man unknowingly hit the jackpot in the state's Megabucks lottery. Napolean Elvord, who is a Vietnam veteran in need of an organ transplant, says he thought he played another game. Days later he says he found the ticket at his home and realized he won after accidentally playing the wrong game.
Winning the lottery is all about luck — or is it about accidentally buying a ticket thinking it's one game instead of another? Either way, one Wisconsin man won the $14.3 million Megabucks pot, but was oblivious to his windfall for three days.
The employees of the gas station where the winning ticket was sold wondered about who had scored the big payday, says the Wisconsin State Journal, and hoped it was one of their regulars, Napolean, a veteran in need of a kidney transplant.
Employees say they even asked him if he was the big winner, and Napolean said it wasn't. But as no one claimed the ticket, workers pressed him again, and it turns out that he had been looking at the wrong day's results.
Beyond that, he didn't even mean to buy a Megabucks ticket, but had let a customer go in front of him.
"I think it was a mistake because I was trying to play the Powerball," he told the paper.
He found the ticket at home and brought it into the lottery office, where they were confused as most people who show up already know they've won. He's opting for a $10.2 million lump sum, or $6.87 million after taxes. He says he'll take care of health insurance first and then move to his warmer home state of Texas.
