A Montana resident was surprised to realise that a $50,000 winning ticket she wanted to throw away was saved by her brother. Virginia Busko-Gewald explained to Montana Lottery officials that she was motivated by her brother's lottery-playing habit to buy lottery tickets at the Great Falls Albertsons. Even though her brother is a regular player, she couldn’t decide what game to play, so she went for the first lottery game the shop clerk suggested: Powerball. Busko-Gewald added that she intends to pay some bills, pay a visit to her nephew in Korea and also to her niece in New York.

A 64-year-old Michigan woman explained she wouldn't have realized her lottery ticket was worth as much as $300,000 if she didn’t enter it in a second chance game. The Otsego County resident told the lottery officials she purchased the Double Bonus Cashword game from the Marathon gas station in Gaylord and she put it in her pile of non-winners when she was scratching it off. The woman explained she wasn’t aware anything was wrong until she attempted to enter her losing tickets for second chance games. "I sat down to enter some of the tickets from my pile, and this one just wouldn't go in," she added.

Harold, and Tina Ehrenberg from Mandeville, Louisiana were preparing to host a Thanksgiving dinner by tidying up their home, when they found a lottery ticket worth $1,800,000 that was forgotten about. Ehrenberg, purchased her lottery ticket from the Louisiana Lottery back in June 6th from International Market which is located at Metairie La. on a casual summer’s day, alongside a few other tickets before storing it away on a nightstand at home. When stumbling upon the ticket recently, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing, and even went as far as checking the winning numbers, three times – which were: 3, 7, 30, 31, 35 and 38 to confirm her own reality.

A homeless man, from Michigan who has opted to remain anonymous has come forward to claim a $4.82 million prize with the Michigan Lottery! The man’s story took a bit of an unexpected turn, and things could have easily gone left if he didn’t have his wits about him. He originally purchased his ticket, which was a Lotto 47 game from the B&D Mini Mart which is located at 32 West Munger Road in Munger and explained that he’d been using the same numbers on that game for over 2 years, with the same payslip too – now that’s dedication! But he said that he’d actually thrown his payslip away shortly after in a dumpster, thankfully he remembered and went back, having to climb into the dumpster to retrieve the ticket. 

The winner of the other half of the $687.8 million Powerball jackpot has finally stepped forward to claim his prize. Robert Bailey, 67 from New York has been playing the same 6 numbers for over 25 years, and even now, after winning such a monumental prize he says that he has plans to continue playing too. Now, being the largest lottery winner in the history of New York, Bailey explained how it was he came to be in this situation. He purchased his ticket from a deli located in Harlem, which differs from what he usually does, as he usually visits a number of stores for his tickets, however on this particular day it was raining pretty bad so he popped into the deli to escape the bad weather, and purchased the Powerball ticket on a whim whilst there. Later that night, he checked the winning tickets and thought “These look like my numbers” which were: 8, 12, 13, 19, 27 and Powerball number 4 – the same numbers the woman from Iowa who won the other half of the prize chose. 

Elsa Zatarain, 49, from Los-Angeles is super happy after finding out that she has won $2,000,000 with the California Lottery on a $20 ticket! Zatarain, an administrative assistant, originally purchased her lucky ticket – which was the Grand Crossword Scratchers game from Royal Donuts, which is located at 1880 West Carson Street in Torrance. She explained how she first checked her ticket, by using a Check-a-Ticket machine and something told her that she’d won some kind of prize but she still wasn’t certain how much! So, she went on to her next best option which was the California Lottery mobile app which allowed her to scan the ticket, and was greeted with the message “$2 million Prize”, Zatarain couldn’t believe what she was seeing and went home, shaking throughout the journey.

Lerynne West, 51 from Redfield, Iowa has recently come forward to claim her huge prize of $198,100,000 with the Powerball Lottery. West, was in the city was at with her sister after relocating homes – when they decided to stop off at Casey's, buying a coffee as well as a slice of pizza when she opted to buy a Powerball lottery ticket too, as she said that she usually played the lottery twice a week. Funnily enough, she left the ticket in her sister’s pickup truck, after thinking she’d put it in her purse which led to the ticket being forgotten about for a while. Following this, her sister discovered the ticket and sent her a picture – and after checking the Powerball website, she realised that she had won the top jackpot and said: “I thought I’ve done something wrong”. But after checking numerous times, West realised that she wasn’t dreaming.