Kayla Martin of Las Animas got a $50,000 windfall Sunday before last when she bought a winning lottery ticket at Loaf 'N Jug.

    Her net cash prize after taxes was $35,500 — but then her story gets a little complicated.

    She has an arrangement with a friend in Lamar who collects losing scratch game tickets and sends them to her.

    Kayla checks the tickets to see if they are winners in the Colorado Lottery second chance program. Even a losing ticket can be a winner after all.

    The family friend in Lamar, Jack Turner, sent her a ticket which qualified for some money back in the Colorado Millionaire game.

    If the money is over a certain amount, Kayla cashes it in and the two split the money. If it is a smaller prize, then Kayla buys more scratch tickets.

    That was the situation she was in when she found that an FF uncovered on a losing game piece would qualify for a second chance prize.

    When she went to a store to buy more tickets, they were out of the Colorado Millionaire scratch game. So she went to Loaf 'N Jug for a drink, and then used the second chance money to buy a ticket there.

    As luck would have it, the ticket she bought  with the second chance prize was good for $50,000.

    So Kayla and her family ended up with $17,500 and Jack Turner got $17,500 too.

    That's her biggest win yet.

    She and Jack once split up a $5,000 payday from a second chance ticket.

    Kayla and Jack make a habit of picking up supposedly losing tickets that people leave  behind or drop on the floor.

    The original purchaser not only loses out on the second chance long-shot win, they can be a loser right off the bat.

    'People throw away winning tickets all the time. Some of the games are kind of hard and people do not understand them," Kay;la explained.

    The Democrat asked Kayla if Colorado Lotttery expects some people not to collect on a winning ticket.

    "Exactly," she replied.

    But people like Kayla and Jack can get some of that unclaimed money back into the public's hands.

    Kayla said Jack, who is the father of some of her friends, started giving her discarded tickets to see if she could just get some extra money to pay for the gas when they drove him to Pueblo. They have been scrounging for and checking out second chance tickets since 2002.

    Kayla said her husband, Brandon, will be getting a new pair of boots.

    But for now, most of the money will be kept in the bank after a few bills are paid.

    She told her children:

    "We are not rich. But you will be getting some new clothes."