Delaware Man Has Unusual Luck With Maryland Lottery

It was Duane Ketterman's lucky day—and then it was his lucky day again, just five weeks later. CNN reports that the man from Millsboro, Del., won the lottery in neighboring Maryland not once but twice in about a month's time, taking home nearly $50,000 in the process. Per the Maryland Lottery, Ketterman, a power-line tech who crosses over daily into Maryland for work, often picks up lottery tickets while he's there. And in early July, he found out he won $18,000 playing Racetrax, a win "I couldn't believe," he told lottery officials.

But Ketterman's good fortunes were just beginning: Last weekend, the 43-year-old was traveling through Queen Anne's County on a trip with his family when he decided to stop for more Racetrax tickets. At a breakfast stop several hours later, a "stunned" Ketterman found out he'd hit it big again, winning an additional $30,785. "After a moment to wrap my head around it, [I] showed my wife," he said. "She was as surprised as I was. More, even." Ketterman says he's not sure yet what they'll do with the winnings. "Something will come up, good or bad, and we'll have this to help handle it," he says.

Meanwhile, maybe there's something in Maryland's water, because another lottery winner there has had similar luck, with even bigger jackpots. Per CNN, a 30-year-old stay-at-home mom from Wicomico County has won three prizes of $100,000 or more in five years, her most recent claimed in June. The unnamed winner says there's actually some strategy involved. "My husband and I do the work on your website," she told lottery officials in June. "We figure out which scratch-off games have been on sale for a long time but still have a lot of big-money prizes." (More lottery winner stories.)