‘Am I dreaming?’ After more than a month, Lexington man claims $1M Powerball prize
After more than a month, the winner of the Aug. 31 Kentucky Lottery Powerball drawing — worth $1 million — has stepped forward, lottery officials announced Friday.
The anonymous Lexington man had been playing the same numbers for years, consisting of his family members birthdays, according to a release.
“I had gone through about 40 tickets and got to the last five to see if I had any winners,” the man told lottery officials.
Lottery winners have 180 days from the date of the drawing to claim their prize, which has to be done at the lottery’s headquarters in Louisville.
According to the release, the man only checks his tickets on occasion and had a stack of tickets going all the way back to June when he sat down Monday to go through them.
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“I was looking at the numbers on my phone, when suddenly I saw the numbers I had always been playing. I kept looking at the ticket and looking at the date, making sure it was correct. I leaned back on my couch, and then started yelling for my family to come check it out,” he said. “They took the ticket, checked Google to see how much you win for matching the five white ball winning numbers and not the Powerball and told me we had just won a million dollars. I kept asking myself — am I dreaming?”
The winning ticket was sold at Crossroads IGA on Abagail Way in Lexington, according to the news release. The retailer will receive a $10,000 bonus.
The man’s ticket matched the first five white ball numbers to win the game’s second prize. The winning numbers were 7, 8, 19, 24 and 28, with a Powerball of 1.
If the ticketholder also matched the Powerball number of 1, he would have won $134 million.
According to the release, the went work Tuesday, but noted he had had a hard time sleeping the night before knowing he would be coming to lottery headquarters to claim his prize. At work, he watched the Aug. 31 drawing on his phone to make sure that those were the numbers that had been drawn.
That afternoon, the man made the trip to Louisville, claiming $710,000 check, after taxes.
As for what he plans to do with the money, he said his family may consider buying a new home.
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