A Connecticut man said his big lottery win came as a surprise when his mom wrote down a wrong number. Photo courtesy of the Connecticut Lottery

July 30 (UPI) -- A Connecticut man said his mother's blurry vision led to a $97,028 surprise when he attempted to cash in what he thought was a $300 lottery ticket.

Armando Ortiz said he wasn't able to watch the Connecticut Lottery's Cash5 results on TV July 22, so he asked his mother to write down the numbers for him.


Ortiz discovered he matched four of the five numbers, earning him a $300 prize, but he was in for a surprise when he tried to redeem the ticket.

"I went to the retailer and scanned my ticket in the ticket checker and thought, something's wrong. Instead of $300, it said $97,328," Armando said. "So, I asked the retailer for a print out of the winning numbers to double check. When he gave me the printout he said, 'You didn't win $300, you won the top prize -- $97,328!'"

Armando said the winning numbers were 6-15-22-23-33, but his mother had written down 28 instead of 23.

"The funny thing is, my mother apologized for getting one of the numbers wrong. She wrote down 28 instead of 23. She said she couldn't see well without her glasses on," Armando said.

The winner said he has plans for his prize money.

"I'm going to fix my car, give some money to my family and bank the rest," he said.