He Left It in the Car and Forgot... "I Nearly Collapsed with Joy": Man Wins $1.48 Million Lottery

Man living in Los Angeles, California
Wins $1.48 million with a second-tier Powerball prize

A man who bought $20 worth of lottery tickets ahead of a Powerball drawing with a jackpot nearing $1 billion (about 1.4 trillion won) in the United States won about $1.48 million (about 2.1 billion won). When he bought the tickets, he told the store clerk he would be happy to win just $1 million. As it turned out, he hit the jackpot for more than that amount.

According to Lottery Post, a U.S. lottery news outlet, on the 23rd, Amos Tillett, who lives in Los Angeles, California, won $1,478,686 with a Powerball ticket he bought ahead of the August 10 drawing.

Powerball lottery ticket

At the time, Tillett spent $20 on Powerball tickets using the game’s Quick Pick option, which randomly selects numbers, at a 7-Eleven store in Los Angeles. The Powerball jackpot had grown to nearly $1 billion.

When Tillett bought the tickets, the store clerk asked him, “With the jackpot so large, why are you only spending $20?” Tillett replied, “I’d be happy just to win $1 million.”

But Tillett did not check whether he had won right after buying the tickets. He left them in his car’s cup holder and forgot about them for about two days. A few days later, a friend who was visiting his home asked him to retrieve something from the car, changing everything. Tillett found the tickets in the car, brought them inside, and checked the winning numbers.

At first, he could hardly believe the results he saw. He scanned the tickets again to make sure, then could not contain his joy. Tillett told the California Lottery that he “ran around the living room and nearly fell to the floor with excitement.” His actual prize was more than the $1 million he had hoped for.

This was a second-tier prize, not the Powerball jackpot. Tillett matched all five white-ball numbers but missed the separately drawn red Powerball number. The winning numbers were 6, 37, 54, 55, and 64 for the white balls, and 10 for the red Powerball. In California, some prize amounts can vary depending on lottery ticket sales and the number of winners.

There was no jackpot winner, so the top prize rolled over to the next drawing. A winner finally emerged in the drawing held on August 12. The winner, whose identity was not disclosed, reportedly took the $1.0402 billion jackpot (about 1.4563 trillion won) as a lump sum and collected $450.5 million (about 630.7 billion won) last month.

Powerball is a lottery sold in several U.S. states. To win the jackpot, players must match all five white-ball numbers as well as the red Powerball number. The odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 292.2 million.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.