Man accidentally buys two identical Powerball tickets, wins $2 million

April 8 (UPI) -- A Maryland man who mistakenly bought two identical tickets for the same Powerball drawing ended up winning a pair of $1 million prizes.

The Annapolis man told Maryland Lottery officials he visited the 7-Eleven store on Bestgate Road in Annapolis and used the lottery terminal's replay feature, which scans old tickets for winners and prints new tickets bearing the same numbers.

The man said he didn't consider that his stack of tickets to scan included some bearing the same sets of numbers, so he ended up with some duplicates.

The player brought his tickets back to scan them after hearing the 7-Eleven had sold two $1 million winning tickets. He said he realized he had duplicates when four of his tickets won $4 each.

The man said he was shocked when he scanned a ticket that matched the first five numbers from the drawing, earning a $1 million prize.

The player called his wife before scanning the rest of the stack.

"We had our crying moment," he recalled. "Twenty minutes after that, when I put the ticket down, I went back to the other tickets."

The man's wife said he predicted what happened next.

"He said, 'I still have tickets to go through. What if I have the second million-dollar ticket?'" she recalled.

The man discovered he did indeed possess the second $1 million ticket.

"It was mind-blowing," he said. "I had no idea I doubled it."

The couple said they plan to invest their winnings.