--- title: Man Bought $30K Lottery Ticket on Accident description: A Connecticut man won $30,000 on Thursday when he accidentally bought the wrong lottery ticket. canonical: https://time.com/3940252/man-lottery-accident/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-29T18:15:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:22.123Z og:title: Man Bought $30,000 Lottery Ticket by Accident og:description: He meant to buy a different ticket but didn't have his glasses on og:url: https://time.com/3940252/man-lottery-accident/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d17f75415d92867/698858ea524fc035d9df3596/sabo_061815.jpg?branch=production&width=264&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 264 og:image:height: 149 og:image:alt: sabo_061815 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Bought $30,000 Lottery Ticket by Accident twitter:description: He meant to buy a different ticket but didn't have his glasses on twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d17f75415d92867/698858ea524fc035d9df3596/sabo_061815.jpg?branch=production&width=264&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Man Bought $30K Lottery Ticket by Accident > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=fdf9e878-611c-4c95-9797-9ea53b54bed7&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 5 Elements of A Viral Video [Watch (HLS stream): 5 Elements of A Viral Video](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vgQtqA8c.m3u8) (1:31)  _Published 2015-06-22. 5 Elements of A Viral Video_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 29, 2015 6:15 PM UTC  Bob Sabo becomes a “30X Cash 2nd Edition” instant game top prize winner. Bob Sabo becomes a “30X Cash 2nd Edition” instant game top prize winner. CT Lottery by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 29, 2015 6:15 PM UTC A Connecticut man won $30,000 last week when he accidentally bought the wrong lottery ticket. Bob Sabo didn’t want to wait in line at the Super Stop & Shop in Fairfield, Conn. to buy his lottery ticket, so he decided to purchase one from the lottery vending machine. He intended to buy two $20 tickets, but since he didn’t have his glasses on, he accidentally purchased one $30 ticket. “When I got home and scratched the 30X ticket, I couldn’t believe it—we won $30,000\. Winning the way we did was a very freaky thing!” Sabo [told the CT Lottery](https://www.ctlottery.org/Modules/Winners/detail.aspx?cid=392830). Don’t we all wish we made mistakes like that. ## Transcript [ NOISE ] What makes a video go viral? Here's our guess. Mishka, I love you. [ NOISE ] Number one, cute animals. [ LAUGH ] Charlie, Charlie bit me. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] [ UNKNOWN ], we're going to Disneyland. Oh, my god. Number two, cute kids. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] Number 3, remixes. [ MUSIC ] Whoa, oh my God, oh my God. [ LAUGH ] Oh my God. Whoo. Number four, spontaneity. Look at all those Number five. Cute kids and cute animals. Put this all together and it will certainly end up on your Facebook feed. 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