A couple who stopped for lunch on a long drive home were served up a USD 1 million fortune when they bought a lotto ticket on the spur of the moment.
Lucky Christine Oberheitmann and her husband had stopped for something to eat on their way home to Berlin, Maryland State, USA, in September.
Christine told local media she couldn’t resist buying a ticket when she saw the rolling Powerball jackpot prize had risen to 500 million (GBP 410 million).
The couple were passing through Cape Charles, Virginia State, and Christine bought a single lucky dip ticket at the Sting-Ray restaurant.
She said in a statement obtained by Newsflash from Virginia Lottery: “I typically only play when the jackpot gets big.”
But she was stunned when her ticket matched numbers 11, 19, 29, 63, and 68, to win the astonishing USD 1 million (GBP 820,310) prize in the drawing on 9th September.
As she collected her winnings at Virginia Lottery headquarters, Christine said: “We’ll probably stop at the store on the way home to take a selfie.”
Virginia Lottery officials said: “Powerball drawings are held at 10.59 pm Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
“The odds of matching all six numbers to win the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. The overall odds of winning any Powerball prize are 1 in 25.
“All Virginia Lottery profits go to K-12 education in Virginia.
“The winning ticket was bought in Northampton County, which received more than USD 1.8 million [GBP 1.4 million] in Lottery funds for K-12 education last fiscal year.
“In Fiscal Year 2023, the Lottery raised more than USD 867 million [GBP 711 million] for K-12 education, making up approximately 10 per cent of Virginia’s total K-12 school budget.”
