Chaffee man wins $50,000 Top Prize with lottery ticket | News

CHAFFEE, MO (KFVS) - A Chaffee man won $50,000 after a whimsical decision to buy a Missouri Lottery ticket.

Michael Bayer, 26, was checking out at Chaffee Food Giant, 11934 State Highway 77, when he got the itch for a Missouri Lottery Scratchers ticket.

“We were doing our grocery shopping for the week, and it was right across the lane from where we were checking out,” Bayer said.

He asked his wife if he could get a ticket and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“I go, ‘I’m going to buy it anyway.’ It was just a ‘stop and go’ kind of thing - $6 worth, and I just got an assortment of different tickets,” he said.

While his wife, Rebecca, wasn’t thrilled at first, she warmed up to the idea in the parking lot, where Bayer uncovered the $50,000 top prize on a “Snow Globe Tripler” Scratchers ticket.

“I saw the first one (prize), and I was like, ‘Eh, $5,000. That’s pretty cool. Everybody is going to have a decent little Christmas, you know.’ Then I saw all the other $5,000s fall through, and I go, ‘Wow.’ Ten of them, and I got a little bit excited,” he said.

Bayer said the windfall would “be a good start off for the new year.”

“We’re going to be moving in the right direction. We’re going to throw a little bit at some charity and what not, and then we’re going to help out some family,” he said.

But the majority will go toward paying for their first home – an older remodel they are working on in downtown Chaffee.

“We actually had a roof put on this week,” he said, while claiming the prize at the St. Louis Lottery office on Dec. 14.

Bayer added that, as an occasional player, he’ll stick with how he was playing.

“You never know,” he said. “It was just a shot-in-the-dark type thing. But I play the Powerball whenever it gets exciting.”

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