Nancy Millspaugh's Thirst Leads To Lottery Win

Last Monday, Nancy Millspaugh was thirsty.

Thank God for that thirst... It was that very thirst that led to Nancy winning the lottery. I'll tell you what happened...

Last Monday, Nancy stopped by her local Circle K gas station in Marion, Indiana. As she put it, "I just wanted something to drink." So she went inside to get a drink (By the way, she didn't specify what drink she bought. I wonder if it was a Dr Pepper??? I mean, what better way to quench your thirst than with an ice-cold bottle of Dr Pepper, right? Ya, right!).

While inside the gas station, buying what may or may not have been a bottle of Dr Pepper, she decided to pick up a scratch lottery ticket. That's when the rest of her plans for that day took a sharp detour. I'm not too sure what her plans for the day actually were, but they changed. They changed because she won some big money on that scratch ticket. She won $100,000!

Isn't that how these big lottery wins usually happen? You go to the store to buy some milk, or some bread, or some Dr Pepper, or some whatever, and at the last minute, you decide to buy a lottery ticket... And then you win. Well, that's what happened to Nancy Millspaugh and that's why her plans for the rest of the day changed.

Little did Nancy know when she woke up that day that she would be going to Indiana Hoosier Lottery's prize claim office. But that's what she did immediately following her win.

The first thing that Nancy did following the win was to call her husband and son to join her on her trip to the lottery prize claim office. But instead of picking them up, they all agreed to meet at a nearby Steak N' Shake restaurant and then go (Anybody know if they serve Dr Pepper at Steak N' Shake?). So that's what they did, they met at the restaurant and then headed over to Indiana Hoosier Lottery's prize claim office to claim the prize.

The rest is history... Nancy Millspaugh is now $100,000 richer and is busy trying to figure out what to do with the money. Oh ya, I don't think she's thirsty anymore either.

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Jerome Bowling - DC 5 Is Easy To Win

This is Jerome Bowling, pictured here with his father.

Jerome loves playing the DC 5 lottery game. Why? Well, in his own words, "It's a sweet game. Easy to play and easy to win."

Hmm... Easy to win, you say? OK, well let me look up the odds of the game. To play the DC 5 game, you have to choose 5 numbers from 0-9. The top prize in the game is $50,000. To win the top prize, all 5 of your numbers must match, in exact order. The odds of winning that top prize of $50,000 are 1-in-100,000.

1-in-100,000... That doesn't sound all that easy. Granted, it's much easier to win than the big jackpot games are. But still, it's pretty hard.

So what's up, Jerome?

Well, Jerome's opinion of the DC 5 game might be slightly biased. That's because he won... 5 times... On the same day... With the same numbers!

OK, now it really does seem easy to win!

Crazy, isn't it? Jerome Bowling hails from a long list of lottery players that have won big prizes playing the same numbers for the same draw. If you read this blog regularly, you may remember stories about people like William Harvey, James Peterson, Nilda Cuevas, and Michael & Ronald, plus many more - All have won multiple prizes on the same day.

Now it's Jerome Bowling's turn - He won the top prize in the DC 5 game five times on the same day. So his total take was $50,000 x 5... $250,000. Nice!

Lucky lucky lucky!

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Marilouise Bruens - Never Trust Strangers With Your Money

Look at me everybody... I'm at the store and just bought an instant scratch lottery ticket. It's called $100,000 Cashword. Now I'm gonna scratch. This is gonna be fun fun fun!!!

OK, so I need to uncover six red words to win the top prize of $100,000. Here I go. Scratch scratch scratch. 1 word. 2 words. 3 words. 4 words. 5 words. By the power of Greyskull, I think just might hit this. One more word. Scratch scratch scratch. I got it, six red words. I'm a winner. Yay!

Hold up, this can't be right. Me, win $100,000? I can't believe it. Why don't I ask that nice-looking stranger to double-check this ticket for me? Hey there sonny-boy, can you look at this lottery ticket and tell me if I really won?

Pardon me, I was just trying to put myself in Marilouise Bruens' shoes. A similar thing happened to her recently. She won $100,000 on CT Lottery scratch-off game called $100,000 Cashword. She scratched the ticket in the store, couldn't believe her eyes, and so asked a stranger to double-check it for her.

Oh man, can you imagine what could happen if you hand over a lottery ticket worth $100,000 to a stranger. What if said stranger just happened to be a little on the unscrupulous side? You might just have to get your run on. I hope you've kept in shape - Wouldn't want to see your thigh muscles cramp up in a situation like that.

That would be like asking a stranger to hold your one-hundred-thousand-dollar-bill while you bend over to tie your shoe-laces. Trusting your money with strangers - That's just something you should never do.

But that's exactly what Marilouise Bruens did - She trusted a stranger with $100,000. It worked out well for her in the end, though. The stranger confirmed the win and gave her the ticket back. Now she's $100,000 richer. You know what, though? that just goes to show that Marilouise is a nice woman - She's very trusting and that says a lot about her. I like her!

Congratulations on the win, Marilouise, and if you ever need me to hold a few thousand dollars for you for safe-keeping, just let me know. Don't worry, you can trust me ;)

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Patrick Yazzie - Mr. Millionaire

Somewhere around mid-May, Patrick Yazzie called his sister. He called to tell her just one thing. This is what he told her:

"You're talking to a millionaire!"

Patrick could have called his sister weeks before, but he didn't. He didn't even know he was a millionaire. You see, Patrick bought a Powerball ticket for the March 31st, 2012 draw. The ticket matched the first five numbers, good for a $1 million prize. But he didn't know it. He didn't check the ticket. The ticket just sat there, collecting dust in his home, unchecked.

It wasn't until around May the 15th that Patrick's wife, Sharon, picked up some old lottery tickets lying around the house to have them checked. That's when she discovered the $1 million win from the March 31st Powerball ticket. That's awesome, it took a month-and-a-half to find out about the win, but better late than never.

Patrick and Sharon Yazzie were excited... They just won $1 million. Patrick, for one, couldn't keep the good news a secret. He just had to tell someone. That's when he called his sister to tell her that she was talking to a millionaire.

I wonder how Patrick's sister reacted to the news... "Ohhh, a million dollars... Can I still call you Patrick? Or should I call you Mr. Millionaire?" I think 'Mr. Millionaire' fits; it's catchy! Or maybe he can change his last name from 'Yazzie' to 'Millionaire'. Then he can introduce himself to people like this: "The name's Bond, James Bond Millionaire, Patrick Millionaire."

Anyway, congratulations on the win Mr. Millionaire; it's good to be excited about such a big win!

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Gelmer Chicas - Screaming Man

If you live in Chesterfield, Virginia, the peace and quiet in your neighborhood might have been disrupted a few days ago by a man screaming at the top of his lungs.

If you heard it, I hope it didn't startle you. I definitely hope you didn't call the cops. As it turns out, it wasn't a scream of anguish. No no no, it was a happy scream. The screaming man was Gelmer Chicas. Sorry, but he was just so happy that he couldn't help himself.

So what's up? Why was Gelmer Chicas so happy? Well, it all started when he went out to the local 7-11 to buy some milk. He bought the milk. Then he also decided to pick up a lottery ticket. He bought an instant scratch game called Diamond 7's.

So Gelmer then scratched the ticket. He looked at it. It appeared to be a winner. Gelmer thought he had just won $1000. Nice.

But Gelmer wanted to make sure that he really did win. So he asked a friend that was with him to take a closer look at the ticket. His friend did just that, he took a closer look. Well, it turns out that Gelmer was completely wrong. He did not win $1000. Nope, he won much much more - $100,000!

If Gelmer was happy to win $1000, you can imagine how much happier he was when he found out it was really $100,000. Yep, he was ecstatic. That's what prompted him to run out onto the street and start screaming. See, so that's what all the screaming was about. Nothing to get worried over. You can't blame the guy for showing some emotion, right? Right!

Postscript: When I win the lottery, I don't think I'm gonna scream; I'm just gonna throw my hands in the air and wave 'em like I just don't care.

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Loren Hafer - Why's It So Hard To Win Washington Lotto?

This is Loren Hafer, with his wife, Donna. They just hit the Washington Lotto jackpot - $11 million... FINALLY!

Finally? Ya, I'm not saying it's about time that Loren won the lottery. All I'm saying is that it's about time that SOMEONE won the Washington Lotto jackpot, that's all.

You see, it's been more than six months since the jackpot was last won. That's a long time. The jackpot kept growing and growing without any winners for months on end.

Going so long without a winner, you'd think that it's really hard to win the Washington Lotto jackpot. But is it really so hard? Well ya, any particular lottery game is hard to win. But, relatively speaking, the Washington Lotto is technically not so. The odds of winning the Washington Lotto jackpot, per ticket bought, are about 1-in-7-million. Those are decent odds and there should be more winners. But there aren't.

Why don't more people win the Washington Lotto jackpot? It's all about choice and preferences. The state of Washington carries both the Powerball and Mega Millions games. Those games have massive jackpots. People are drawn to the big money games, no matter the odds. So they spend more on those games than they do on the Washington Lotto game.

That's all there is to it - People prefer to buy tickets for the big money games. So ticket sales for the Washington Lotto game aren't as high as they should be. People can choose to buy whatever lottery game they want, but you know what? If I lived in Washington, I'd prefer to play the Washington Lotto game just because of the better odds. For instance, per dollar spent, you're about 78 times more likely to win the Washington Lotto jackpot than you are to win the Powerball jackpot. Sure, you can't win hundreds of millions of dollars on Washington Lotto, but I'd be more than happy with a few million.

Loren Hafer's more than happy with his $11 million. The man from Chewelah, Washington says he's gonna celebrate the win by buying "the best pickup truck in town." That's awesome, congratulations Loren... Just don't buy a yellow pickup truck, OK?

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Shirley Pence - Winning The Lottery Is Depressing

One day, when your numbers hit for the jackpot, it's gonna be the best day of your life - All of your problems will instantly disappear and, from there on in, life will be all fun and games... Good times!

Or maybe not.

Pictured here is Shirley Pence. She won the lottery in 1995. She won an Arizona Lottery Powerball jackpot. It was a whopper of a jackpot too - $101,844,679.

The day she won, she was ecstatic. She was excited about being able to quit her job at an insurance company and living the good life. Her husband, Don, was happy to be quitting his job as a painter too. That's what winning the lottery does for you - It gives you the freedom to do whatever you want without having to work for a living. It's awesome!

But soon after winning, especially if it's a huge jackpot, things might end up being not-so-awesome. When you win a lot of money, everybody you know, and even people you don't know, expect you to give give give... Give money to everybody and anybody.

That's what happened to Shirley Pence. She said it was depressing. People went so out of their way to try to get some money out of her. "We'd wake up in the morning and we'd have gifts on the front porch, flowers, alarm clocks, just all kinds of things," she said. "It just got ridiculous. So we got out of town for a while."

I have an idea... Why don't I just leave some flowers on the porch of my neighbor who just won the lottery, and perhaps an alarm clock too. Maybe she'll enjoy the flowers and clock so much that she'll give me a million dollars. Great idea, huh? Seriously, what are people thinking?

But that's not even the worst of it... "We had one situation where they threatened to kidnap our grandson and our dog. I mean it was like okay people give me a break, this is ridiculous."

Wow, another great idea... Kidnap a little kid, and maybe a dog too. If the ransom demands aren't met, it still leaves you with props for committing other crimes, like robbing a bank... Fill my bag with money or I shoot the dog!

So when you win a big jackpot, watch out for the wackos. It might get a little depressing, as it did for Shirley. Or just skip out of town for a while. Go somewhere where nobody knows who you are. Eventually, the wackos will stop pestering. Then you can really start living the good life.

Even though Shirley Pence described the initial days following the Powerball win as depressing, she does now say that it was a blessing. Life's all fun and games now. In fact, now and then, she'll even buy another lottery ticket. Maybe she'll win again one day. Then she'll need to get ready for the wackos to come out of the wood-work again!

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Rocky Armentrout - How Long Will My Winning Streak Go?

You ever do this... You buy an instant scratch ticket. You win a few dollars. You use your winnings to buy another ticket. You win some more. You keep repeating. You're on a winning streak and you want to see how long you can milk it.

I know I've done this before. My winning streak normally ends on my 2nd or 3rd ticket. I'm not so lucky. But other people do get lucky.

Take Rocky Armentrout, for instance. He recently tried this. The man from Conway, South Carolina, bought a scratch-off ticket. He won a few dollars. Then he bought another ticket and won again. He kept winning and kept buying more. He wanted to see how long his winning streak would go. That day, he said that it felt like everything he touched turned to gold.

Then he suddenly stopped. He stopped buying tickets. Why would a man that's on an awesome lucky streak just suddenly stop? Well, he won a big one - He purchased a game called Cold Hard Cash and won the game's top prize - $100,000. That's when he forgot all about his winning streak and could only focus on what just happened to him - He won a big lottery prize!

Haha, I don't blame him for losing focus on the winning streak... The excitement of winning $100,000 was just too much. When Rocky won, the first thing he did was he grabbed the clerk, gave him a big hug, and lifted him off the ground. Yep, he was just that excited. Oh ya, and then he called his wife to tell her the good news.

Maybe Rocky should have kept playing. Maybe he should've bought a Powerball ticket that day too. I mean, that was the day that everything he touched turned to gold. But he didn't. He stopped playing. I guess we'll never know if Rocky Armentrout's winning streak could have gone on and on.

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Valentino Hyden - I Have A Great Life!

This is Valentino Hyden. He has a great life - He just celebrated his wedding anniversary... 29 years of marriage to a wonderful woman... His son is graduating from college next week... Valentino is loving life!

But life just got even better...

It all started a few days ago when he was at the store checking his Lotto Max ticket. Something weird happened when the clerk scanned his ticket - The machine played a different jingle, one that he hadn't heard before. There's a certain jingle, like when you win, say, $10 that the machine plays. But it's a totally different jingle when you win a big prize.

It's not like Valentino understood what this different jingle meant. Neither did the clerk. Neither of them had heard it before. But slowly, things began to make sense.

A message on the clerk's lottery terminal told the clerk not to let the customer leave and to wait for a phone call from OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.). On top of that, the lottery terminal froze. There were other customers waiting to buy tickets, but the machine wasn't working anymore. Something big must've been happening.

So they waited... Waited for the phone call from OLG. The phone rang. The clerk picked it up. It was an OLG official calling to to advise how much was won. It was $1 million!

Then OLG rebooted the store's lottery terminal. It was working again. Open for sales. But none of the other customers were really interested in that anymore. They were all happy for Valentino, congratulating him and hugging him. They all knew that Valentino's life just got better. And so did Valentino...

"I have a great life and with this I can enjoy it even more."

Valentino Hyden doesn't yet know what he'll be doing with the money, but one things for sure - He'll continue to play the lottery. "Who knows, maybe I'll win again," he said. And maybe he'll get to hear that jingle again. But next time, he'll know exactly what it means.

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Mike Stratychuk - Winnipeg Blue Bombers Scratch Lottery Winner

Mike Stratychuk is a huge Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan... HUGE!!!

If you told him a couple of weeks ago that he'd be sitting in the Blue Bombers dressing room with some of the players, he'd have probably thought that you were nuts.

But it happened... That's Mike in the picture above, with his fiancee Tracy Glowacki, and a couple of the players in the dressing room holding a press conference.

How did this happen? What was the press conference all about? Well, I'll tell you - Mike Stratychuk just recently celebrated a birthday. His fiancee, Tracy, bought him two Winnipeg Blue Bombers scratch lottery tickets as a present. The instant scratch game is a game from Manitoba Lotteries modeled after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers CFL team. Oh ya, I forgot to mention, the CFL is the Canadian football league (They throw pigskins in Canada too, you know?).

So Mike scratched the tickets. The first one wasn't a winner. The second one was. He won the game's top prize of $100,000. Mike was the first big winner in the Blue Bombers scratch game, so they held a press conference to announce him as the winner. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers pulled out all the stops and sent a few players to attend. How do you like that? For a big fan of the team, winning $100,000 on a team-themed scratch game and then meeting a few of the players on top of all that - That's pretty awesome!

Here's how Mike put it - "The best part of this was when we heard that the Bombers wanted to see us!"

That's pretty cool, but I have to disagree with Mike - I think the best part of this was winning $100,000! Yep, it is, but that's just my opinion.

Mike Stratychuk's already spent half of his winnings. Guess what he bought first? Yep, he bought season's tickets for the Blue Bombers 2012/13 season. Go figure! Oh ya, he also already bought a brand new Dodge Ram.

Congratulations on the win, Mike, and here's to hoping the the Winnipeg Blue Bombers win the Superbowl Stanley Cup Grey Cup next year!

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