A mild mannered 51-year-old Chestertown player smiled as if he swallowed a canary as he entered the Lottery’s Claim Center. His joy was due to some very good fortune and luck. He won a total of $20,000 on two $10,000 Mega Millions tickets.

The maintenance worker has a regular routine he sticks to when playing Mega Millions. He has some play slips already filled out that he chooses from every Tuesday and Friday. On this particular Friday, the lucky player chose three play slips and played that morning. He repeated the ritual that evening, purchasing three more Mega Millions tickets. As luck would have it, the ticket he played twice matched four numbers plus the Mega Ball, winning him $10,000 for each winning ticket. “The numbers are all family birthdays,” he told Lottery officials.

It took a couple of weeks for the winner to check his tickets. After scanning the first ticket, the message said to go to the Lottery. After scanning a few more, the same message came up again. “I like to scan the tickets to see the congratulations message,” he said. “But, the ‘Go to the Lottery’ message was a first,” he continued. Still skeptical about the win, he had the cashier print out the winning numbers. Indeed, it was a twin win for $10,000.

A little laid back about his win, the player had a silly thought. “I thought the win was based on the amount of people that play,” he said. “I thought I would get a couple hundred dollars after splitting it.” He later found out, that was not the case. He said he plans to use the winnings to pay bills, buy a car and donate to church. The winning ticket was purchased at Lewes Dairy, located at 840 Street in Chestertown.