A Lunch Break, Grandma’s Car, and a $1M Powerball Win

An Illinois man says his $1 million Powerball win all comes down to one thing — grandma’s good luck. He even gave himself the nickname “Grandma is my lucky charm.”

His lucky streak kicked in when he slipped out on his lunch break to grab a ticket for the $240 million jackpot drawing. As he pulled into a Road Ranger gas station, something stopped him in his tracks: his grandmother’s car.
“I walked in, and there she was at the register,” he said. A quick hug later, he bought his ticket and headed back to work.

Hours later, everything changed. His Powerball ticket matched all five numbers in the October 11 drawing — 13, 16, 18, 20, 27 — landing him $1,000,004.

He said the moment he scanned the ticket was pure chaos:

• “I scanned it once… then again.”

• “Next thing I knew, I was yelling and losing my breath.”

His first call? Grandma.
“And the first thing she asked was, ‘Are you sure you won?’”

The winner already knows how he’ll spend part of his windfall:

• Share some with grandma

• Buy a brand-new car

The store that sold the winning ticket will also get a $10,000 bonus. And his win isn’t alone — 12 Illinois players have already hit $1 million or more in Powerball prizes this year.

In another wild twist of lottery luck, a Michigan man recently snagged a $1 million prize after buying a scratcher that another customer left on the counter. He called the win “a blessing” he never expected.