The tickets were sold at Paketeria Food Market on South Olden Avenue in Trenton, and Worldwide Liquors on Van Wrinkle Ave., in Garfield.
The Mercer County winner stopped by a local food market and asked for five of the new Super 50 tickets -- the lottery's "biggest tickets ever." After receiving his towering five-foot-tall set of tickets, he scratched through the record-sized game one at a time.
The first four were lucky enough, netting him three prizes for a few hundred dollars. The final ticket, however, is where his luck truly came through.
The lucky winner found the first Super 50 jackpot ticket worth $500,000. He could not believe the news and took a few days to decide what to do with his prize. He says the money will be used to invest in his business and pay off his home.
Later that same day, a teacher from New York stopped in a Garfield liquor store while visiting a friend and couldn’t help but notice the over-sized ticket displayed on the counter and decided to give it a try.
He quickly scratched the ticket and passed the barcode under the scanner. When the scanner said it was a winner, he didn’t believe it and handed the ticket to the clerk to double-check. The clerk gave him the good news -- he had also won $500,000.
This teacher was already looking ahead to retire in the next few years, and he says this prize will help greatly with his retirement.
Once he is retired, he plans to spend more time with his father, who lives abroad.
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