Road trip! Alabama family makes a return visit to Kentucky
By Kate Northrop
FRANKLIN, Ky. — A summertime road trip left one Alabama family with more than just memories after a pit stop in Kentucky rewarded them with a $150,000 Powerball lottery prize.
Never discount the mundane rest stops. An Alabama family didn't think much of it until they learned they'd have to return to Kentucky to claim $150,000 from the Powerball lottery ticket they purchased there.
Theresa and James Stuckey of Enterprise, Alabama told Kentucky Lottery officials about their trip through Kentucky to pick up their son. He had spent the summer with family in Ohio, so they met at a midway point in Kentucky to retrieve him.
The Bowling Green area, about 60 miles north of Nashville, is about halfway between their home and their family in Ohio, so they decided to meet there.
"Before heading back home, we stopped at a busy convenience store to eat and then left," Theresa said in a press release. "We were on the road for maybe five minutes that we had to stop at the Pilot Travel Center in Franklin for a restroom break."
While there, Theresa decided to buy a Powerball ticket for the Aug. 1 drawing. At the time, the jackpot was at $718.7 million, but it went on to reach $1.04 billion for the Aug. 12 drawing before it was won by one ticket in Illinois.
Theresa's ticket contained five plays, and she added the Power Play option for an extra $1 per play, which multiplies non-jackpot prize winnings.
The Aug. 1 drawing produced results 6, 17, 27, 48, and 50, with Powerball number 5 and a Power Play multiplier of 3X.
They didn't see the results until after they got home. Theresa downloaded the Kentucky Lottery's mobile app to check their tickets.
"I looked at my phone, and I just sat there for a second," she recalled. "I was like, 'No way. That can't be real!'"
Since her ticket held a play that matched four white ball numbers plus the Powerball number, she won the game's third-tier prize of $50,000. And with the Power Play multiplier add-on, her prize was tripled to $150,000.
She showed her husband a screenshot of her phone with a message stating they had won $150,000.
"Well, it looks like we're going back to Kentucky tomorrow," Theresa remarked.
"I always add Power Play," she said to Lottery staff the day they made the return trip. She mentioned that she'll also start adding the Double Play feature to her future tickets for a chance to win with another set of numbers.
Alabama does not have a state lottery, so it's common for Alabama residents to travel to neighboring states to buy lottery tickets. It makes playing the lottery a road trip tradition for Theresa and her family whenever they're out-of-state.
"We'll pick them up randomly, just through different states," they explained. "When we're on long road trips and the jackpots are high, we talk about what we would do if we won."
After taxes, the family took home a total of $108,750. The winnings will help them pay off vehicles, assist their daughter financially in college, and plan a family vacation.
"It's all about the memories, right?" they quipped.
Lottery officials asked whether this is news they intend to share with colleagues at work, at which James joked, "I kind of want to take the check just so I can go back to work and say 'I told y'all!'"
"It's very nerve-wracking, having something of that amount that could easily blow away with the wind," Theresa said of owning the winning ticket. "I was like, put it in a frame or something!"
For selling the ticket, Pilot Travel Center will receive a $1,500 bonus commission from the Lottery.
The next Powerball annuity jackpot estimate for the drawing on Saturday, Aug. 15 currently stands at $20 million.
Powerball is currently offered for sale in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.
Powerball lottery results are published within minutes of the drawing at USA Mega (www.usamega.com). The USA Mega website provides lottery players in-depth information about the United States' two biggest multi-state lottery games, Mega Millions and Powerball.
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They look happy in their photo with the big check, congratulations 🎉 😄