A defective lottery ticket raised and then dashed an out-of-work man’s dreams. It was like a printing machine played a cruel trick on him.

Massachusetts resident Paul Pasquarosa bought a lottery ticket the day before his birthday, claiming he was feeling lucky. And he believed his luck went through the roof when he scratched a million dollar Cashword lottery ticket and thought he was a winner.

“I’m looking at it; I have three red words. It says three red words wins a million dollars. I called my son and told him things were gonna be OK,” Pasquarosa, a father of two, said.

Despite appearing to have the winning criteria, a printing error proved it wasn’t a winner at all.

Pasquarosa’s lawyer, George Miller, inspected the ticket, saying, “At first glance I believe this gentleman won a million, but on a closer inspection, I saw there was an offset in the printing. Mr. Pasquarosa was not just disappointed but visibly ill.”

The moral of the story? Check your ticket before walking out of the store.

Lottery officials attempted to remove 2,200 defective tickets that were printed in a lot of 20 million.

[CBS]

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