ATCHISON, Kan. — They say you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than winning a lottery. But don’t tell that to Guy Harvey!
“I’m not, not a lucky person,” 61-year-old Harvey of Atchison claimed “I scanned my ticket, and it came up I needed authorization,” Harvey said.
He’s worked at MGP alcohol distillery for 40 years. He’s been buying lottery tickets for 10 years.
“I handed the ticket to the lady and said, ‘What’s that mean?’ and she said, ‘Well it means you won more than $599,'” he added.
It was Thursday, December 12th when he went to the Cash Saver to buy the ticket. He went back on Friday the 13th to cash the ticket.
“I had to do it on Friday the 13th,” he said. “Because the numbers I used were my mother’s birth date and the day she passed away, she was superstitious.”
The clerk scanned it and said he had 5 out of 6 numbers. He traveled to Topeka to the lottery headquarters to verify the ticket.
“I was on the phone with my service desk employee at the time, because she didn’t know what to do!” said Catreece Downing, a manager at Cash Saver.
This is the first time in the history of the store that someone has won this much money.
“We’ve increased in our sales for the Mega Millions,” she added.
Noah Rhee, a math professor at UMKC said the odds were certainly against Harvey.
“He got five consecutive numbers right, so the odds would be one out of seven to the fifth power, which is about one out of 1.7 billion,” Rhee said. “That’s a fairly small number!”
Harvey has two daughters.
“I told my oldest daughter, and she thought I was joking, because I’m a practical joker,” he said. “I said, ‘No, I think I won a million dollars!'”
Harvey said he’s not going to make any quick changes.
“Sit on it for a while!” he said.
But he knows his mom was definitely looking out for him.
“Yeah she had something to do with it,” he said.
Despite the odds, Harvey — now $1 million richer — seems to think it was all worth it.
“Better keep playing, you can win!” Harvey said.
Harvey said he won’t believe it until he sees the check, which comes in a week. He said he’s going to continue to play, in fact, he’s going to play the same numbers.
