"Nobody believed me, I didn't believe her. Until I actually got them in my hand. I'm like wow, this is actually happening, I guess I'm actually going!" said Andrew Hamstra.
Any real Giants fan would feel the same way with two Super Bowl tickets on the dining room table. They're worth $800 a piece face value, and worth a few thousand dollars each on the secondary market. But for Andrew, they cost just five bucks, a little luck, and lots of love from his mother, who won them.
"Every year I buy Super Bowl raffle tickets from Newark Rotary," Nancy Hamstra said.
"She told me first prize is Super Bowl. Andrew gets them. If it's the iPad, I get it." Kelly Hamstra, her daughter, said.
Well, no one was talking iPad when a Newark Rotary Club member called Nancy.
Andrew is a 22 year old medic in the Army. He just returned from a one year tour in Afghanistan, where he helped train Afghan soldiers many skills, including tending to the wounded. He's stationed at Fort Knox in Kentucky, which is where he was when he got a text from Mom.
"I did not believe her at first. People don't just call you everyday and say you're going to the Super Bowl, so I didn't believe her," Andrew said.
The Hamstra's are life-long Giants fans. Andrew had already won the tickets while he was watching that last nail-biter against the 49ers.
"It made that game so much crazier, trying to watch that game and not be. When it went into over time, I'm surprised I didn't have a heart attack and die!" he said.
What a way to spend your leave and will Andrew ever thank Mom?
"I have to figure out a way to thank her. How do you 1-up super bowl tickets? I need to buy her a car or win the lottery figure that out!" joked Andrew.
CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS OF THE GIANTS ROAD TO THE SUPER BOWL
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