We've all heard the statistics about how unlikely a person is to win the lottery, let alone the Powerball. But somebody has to win, right?
There are stories about people who seem especially lucky--if you believe in luck.
1. Twice! An Abilene, Kan. player who won a Super Kansas Cash jackpot in 2004 did it again four years later. Hope Higgins, 65, matched all six numbers in a June 2008 drawing to win a grand prize of $1,201,028. April 2004, Higgins was one of two winners who split a Super Kansas Cash jackpot of $3.05 million, with Higgins’ share being more than $1.5 million.
“I went through a stage wondering if I should keep playing,” Higgins said. “But I really felt there was going to be another ‘dream come true,’ so I kept on playing. For some reason, I just knew I would win again.”
2. Random luck? A stop for a quick bite to eat with a friend earned a Hewkin, 35, $50,000, through a winning “Yuletide Magic” Scratchers ticket. The lucky was with her at East Office Bar and Grill in Cuba, Mo. on Nov. 23.
3. Lucky location: A convenience store in Dearborn, Mo. has proved lucrative for more than one lottery winner.
"Stephen Cooke, a Roswell, Georgia, native showed up at the Mega Millions office in Atlanta to claim his lottery winnings following a draw held in November, 2003. He was told that he would be sharing the lottery jackpot with two other players. At that point, Cooke realized that HE was one of the other two winners! He had purchased two lottery tickets with the same numbers, so he was a double winner." From lotteryuniverse.com
4. Down on the farm: A woman from Warrensburg, Mo. won $1,000 a week for 20 years on Scratchers in 1997--for a total of $1,040,000. She bought a farm and named it “Luckytown Farms.”
FEELING LUCKY?
"A Virginia woman won $1 million -- twice -- after she mistakenly bought two Powerball tickets instead of one. Virginia Fike, 44, of Berryville, Va., intended to buy one Powerball ticket and one for Mega Millions, but instead bought two Powerball tickets.... Both tickets matched five of the six Powerball numbers, and they were worth $1 million each." From NBCNews.com
5. Family matters. Two members of the same family from Ste. Genevieve, Mo. each won a jackpot: a father and grown daughter Ernie Weiler (now deceased) and Susan Palmer each won a Lotto jackpot prize.
6. Happy birthday! In October 2015, a teacher from St. Peters, Mo. got a birthday present with a Lottery Scratchers ticket inside it and won $1 million.
Editor's note: Some information for this story was provided by the Kansas Lottery and the Missouri Lottery.
