Man wins $1 million Powerball prize after news headline jogs his memory

MARION COUNTY, Mo. (WGEM/Gray News) – A man who almost threw away a winning Powerball ticket is $1 million richer after a news headline reminded him to check the numbers.

Missouri Lottery officials say the man saw a news report on his phone about a winning $1 million Powerball ticket being sold at a FastLane gas station in Taylor, WGEM reports.

The man says the headline triggered his memory of a ticket he bought for the Oct. 26 drawing at that specific FastLane location. He says he almost threw the card away.

“I was actually about to throw it away!” he told lottery officials. “And then I thought, ‘Maybe I should check this one out.’”

When he checked the Quick Pick ticket, the man discovered that he had won $1 million by matching all five white ball numbers. Then he told his wife, but she did not believe him.

“I was in shock,” she said. “I actually thought he was joking!”

The winning Powerball numbers for October 26 were 8, 12, 40, 45, 51 and 15.

Powerball tickets are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.