A Maryland man hit a grand slam this summer playing the state lottery: four winning tickets totaling $101,000 in prize money, The Gazette of Montgomery County reports. Donald "Donnie" Cole III, of Brookeville, won $50,000 on June 26, another $50,000 on July 26, and then $1,000 in September from two tickets.

"It was a stunning feeling," he said of his first win, which came on a $20 Big Money Mega Play scratch-off. "I just kept looking at it, wondering if I was looking at it wrong. I put it down and came back and looked at it again, and knew that I really had won." 

And after last month's big $20 Silver & Gold ticket? "It wasn't nearly as much of a shock the second time," said Cole, 52, a government contractor who survived a brain aneurysm in 1999. "It was like, 'Wow, I did it again.'" He learned of his two winning $500 tickets while on the phone with the Gazette reporter.

How will Cole spend his windfall? He and his wife raise ferrets and fish, so he'll donate a portion to animal rescue organizations. He also said he would "reinvest" and "buy a whole lot of stuff I don't need."

For instance?

"I bought a $125 door knocker in the shape of a crab, just because I could."

(Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY) 

(Source: USA Today, www.9news.com)