Kentucky family nearly forgot about $50K Powerball ticket

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (FOX 56) — A Kentucky family’s last-minute Powerball had a big payout.

The Kentucky Lottery said the family, who asked to remain anonymous, said they debated for about getting tickets for the Sept. 6 drawing, which had the second-largest jackpot in Powerball history.

“When the jackpot gets high, you start noticing because everybody’s buzzing. Everybody’s talking about it. It’s everywhere,” the mom said. “But I didn’t want to go buy a ticket, but my grandson kept pushing us to. So, at 9 that night, I said, ‘Come on, let’s go.’”  

The family said they decided to go to three different Lottery retailers to buy their tickets, with the winning ticket being purchased at M&S Food Mart, 11550 Bluegrass Parkway, Louisville, Ky. 40299, which will earn $500 for selling the ticket.  

The next afternoon, the family was watching NFL games and forgot about their ticket purchases the night before.  

“Around 3 p.m., the entire family was around, and I just grabbed the tickets out of my purse and handed them to my son,” the mom said.  

“I got on my phone and asked Siri to pull up the winning numbers,” the son said. “I couldn’t believe it. I thought I had the wrong date, or the ticket was a joke.”  

He handed the winning ticket back to his mom for her to read.

“Oh my God, you were almost a billionaire. You were one number away from being a billionaire,” the son told his mom.

The son said he was so focused on missing the jackpot, he couldn’t figure out how much they had won on the ticket. 

“So my brother came over and looked up the winning numbers for himself. We still didn’t believe it,” the son said.  

The family, not trusting themselves, got in their car and drove to a nearby Lottery retailer to scan the ticket. 

“They went in and scanned it, and I sat in the car,” the mom said. “They came back out and said we had won $50,000, and I was in shock. We didn’t say a word to each other on the way home because we were all in shock,” she joked.   

They plan to use the money to make home improvements and put it toward educational support for their family.  

Lottery officials said the last five Powerball® drawings have produced nine big wins in Kentucky, ranging from $50,000 to $1 million.

Two tickets were purchased online, and the remaining seven were purchased in Florence, Lebanon, Lexington, London, Louisa, and two in Louisville. Winning tickets sold in Florence, Louisa, and the two in Louisville have been claimed.