News writer; Opinion columnist
When your odds of winning a lottery jackpot are one in several million, you need to be extremely lucky if you want to win the big prize. But what if that's not true? What if bad luck is exactly what you need for a big win?
While that may seem counterintuitive, we've found many stories of people who turned the worst day of their lives into massive lottery prizes. From wrecked cars to lost homes, these players suffered real tragedies before winning big.
These are the true stories of lottery players whose bad days turned into million-dollar dreams.
Bad car leads to big fortune
There's almost no better feeling than purchasing your dream car and experiencing its smooth acceleration and lush interior for the first time. That's also why there's no worse feeling than damaging that car shortly after you take it home.
North Carolina resident Anthony Dowe had this experience in January 2021 when he totaled his brand-new Kia K5 while driving down the highway to work. In a release from the North Carolina Education Lottery, Dowe said:
I hit two deer with my brand-new car. So, I just got mad, went back home, got into bed, and went to sleep.
Dowe was so angry about the accident that he forgot all about the Mega Millions tickets he purchased and didn't check the numbers after the drawing.
However, by the next day, he had calmed down and decided to see if his luck had changed.
“I checked the fourth ticket, and I saw the '4' and then the next number, and the next number, and the next number. I'm like, 'Wow!' It was just crazy.”
Dowe correctly matched all five white balls but just missed the Mega ball. He would have won $1 million, but he purchased the Megaplier for an extra dollar and doubled his jackpot to $2 million. He added:
I went and showed my dad and my mom, and everybody was so happy.
Dowe, who works in a warehouse, took the one-time payout and collected a check for $1.4 million after paying state and federal taxes. He plans to use the money to fix his parent's house, increase his savings, and, of course, buy a new car.
Gas up
Michael Schlemmer of Corbin, Kentucky, was so busy in May 2023 that he forgot to stop and gas up his vehicle after a long drive. He saw that his fuel gauge was pushing E, and he almost didn't make it to the gas station.
“I ran out of gas, and I coasted in there,” Schlemmer told reporters.
Schlemmer decided to push his luck, so while fueling up his car, he bought a $1,000,000 Luck scratch-off lottery ticket from the Convenient Food Mart.
“I had $40 bucks on me and bought $20 worth of gas and bought a ticket,” he said. His luck with the lottery was better than his luck with his car because when Schlemmer uncovered his ticket, he revealed a pot of gold symbol, meaning he instantly won one million dollars.
He took the ticket back into the Food Mart to verify that it was a winner and celebrated with the staff. Schlemmer stated:
I scratched it off, and I looked at it and went back (into) the store. I showed the girls that sold it to me, and they about had a fit. The owners of the store were there, and they both started grinning.
Schlemmer opted for the lump sum payout, which, after taxes, totaled $616,330. He said he plans to save most of the money but will purchase a new car with his winnings. “I told the dealership I'm waiting for a big check to come in, and then I hit that,” he said.
Hopefully, he finds something that's just a little bit more fuel-efficient than his last ride.
The Convenient Food Mart will collect $8,620 for selling the winning ticket.
Double trouble
Two things happen when your car breaks down. The first is that you're stranded wherever your car quits and the second is that you're probably facing a massive bill from a mechanic who will tell you that you need a hard-to-find part that won't be available for two weeks.
Jacksonville, Florida, resident Curtis Fuller faced this problem twice in May 2021 when both of his family's cars broke down.
“My wife's car broke down a few days ago, and two days after that, my truck broke down,” Fuller recalled in a statement.
Feeling frustrated with his situation, he spent $5 on a 50X The Cash scratch-off ticket from the Jacksonville convenience store First Coast Energy. After scratching the ticket, he realized that he had won the big prize of one million dollars.
He collected his check at the Florida Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee and opted for the lump sum payout. Fuller was awarded $890,000 before paying taxes, and he says that he plans to use the money to invest in a better life for his family.
“In addition to buying a new house, this money will help us purchase two new vehicles,” he told the lottery commission.
First Coast Energy will receive $2,000 for selling the winning ticket.
Act of God
From earthquakes to wildfires to hurricanes, it seems that some type of natural disaster has impacted the entire country.
A Midland, Michigan, player who chose to remain anonymous knows the pain of losing everything after his home was destroyed in 2020.
“Last year, I lost everything in a flood, so to win this prize is so overwhelming to me,” he said in a statement released by the Michigan State Lottery Commission.
He was on his way to pick up his kids from school when he stopped at a convenience store to buy a few scratch-off tickets.
I never play $20 tickets, but when I stopped to pick up a couple of things on my way to pick up my kids, the Lucky 7's ticket caught my eye. Seven is a lucky number for me, so I decided to take a chance and bought the ticket.
As it turns out, seven was an extremely lucky number because his ticket contained a match that was worth $2 million.
The man chose to receive his prize as a lump sum payout, and after paying various taxes, he pocketed $1.3 million. He says he plans to use the money to pay off some bills and save the rest for his children.
“Knowing my kids will be taken care of is the best feeling in the world,” he added.
A big loss leads to a big win
As they say, sometimes it's darkest before dawn, or in the case of North Carolina resident Jacob Strickland, sometimes it's darkest before the jackpot.
Strickland was hyped to see his favorite college football team, the Clemson Tigers, take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a November 7, 2020 matchup. However, Strickland's excitement quickly turned to pain when his Tigers were beaten soundly, losing both the game and their top-10 national ranking.
Strickland stated in a press release:
We were watching football with some friends and Clemson was getting beat terribly by Notre Dame. We were joking we should get lottery tickets because our luck couldn't get any worse.
Strickland purchased a $3 “Quick Pick” Powerball ticket on his phone shortly before the drawing. While his team may have fallen flat on the gridiron, Strickland found the endzone with his ticket by matching four white balls. He initially won $50,000, but with the 3x power play multiplier in effect, he collected $150,000.
The 29-year-old welder was shocked to have actually won. “It was just a day of disbelief because I've never won anything before,” he added.
After paying taxes on his prize, Strickland took home just over $100,000. He says he plans to use the money to save and invest in his future.
License to win
If there's one thing you can take away from these bad luck/big winner stories, it's that if you ever have car trouble, it might be a good time to buy a lottery ticket.
A senior citizen from Howard County, Maryland, took home a five-figure lottery prize by turning her vehicular misfortune into a big win. The woman, who chose to remain anonymous, suffered a serious car accident while driving home. Fortunately, she was physically unharmed, but her car was severely damaged and had to be towed away.
She usually played the in-state draw game Pick 4, but a week after the accident, she decided to try the new Pick 5 game. She paid fifty cents for a straight bet ticket for the Valentine's Day drawing and used numbers from her wrecked car's license plate.
The next day, she checked her lottery app and saw that she had the winning numbers. “I called my friend and said, 'Can you believe this?'”, she said in a statement. She took her ticket to a local grocery store and verified that she had won the $25,000 prize.
The woman said that she already knows how she plans to spend the money and put down a deposit on a new convertible.
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