Steve Workman stopped by a grocery store in Champaign, Illinois, Friday before leaving town for the weekend and bought a $2 lottery ticket.
Monday, he was back from his weekend trip and decided to check the numbers on several lottery tickets he was holding when he stopped to fill his car with gas.
To his surprise, he discovered he was the single winner of $13.5 million jackpot in the Illinois State Lottery's Lotto drawing held Saturday night.
"I couldn't stop laughing. It was funny as hell," said Workman, a Kewanee native, in an interview Tuesday with the Star Courier.
Workman drove to Springfield Tuesday to turn his ticket in to lottery officials and learned it will be three or four weeks before he gets the check.
He had the choice of taking the $13.5 million in 26 annual payments, or as a lump sum, which came to $5.7 million after taxes. He decided to take it all now.
Asked what he would do with his newfound millions, Workman was unsure. "It'll probably have something to do with golf," he admitted.
Workman should have no problem deciding what to do with his winnings. He is a CPA and does financial planning for a living.
He is the son of Mary and the late Stan Workman of Kewanee, and is a 1967 graduate of Wethersfield High School.