Craig Jones from Plainfield in Indianapolis, USA, is celebrating winning a $15.8 million Hoosier Lotto jackpot. His win in the August 4 draw came from a ticket that he didn’t even need to pay for.
$15.8 million jackpot
For two days, Jones had no idea that he was the winner of the $15.8 million jackpot. Sunday is a busy day for him as that’s when he cuts grass. He was working the next day too but on Tuesday, finally he discovered his win. “The whole time it was in my wallet,” he joked.
He stopped off at a gas station and it was time to take that ticket out of his wallet and see if it had won anything. He scanned his ticket at a register. It was a winner, but he was told to go to the Hoosier Lottery office in Indianapolis. A sure sign that he had won a very large prize. When he returned home, he checked the results of the August 4 draw and saw that the winning numbers were: 08-18-27-31-36-42 and they looked rather familiar.
“I checked it and had to stumble for my glasses,” said Craig, “I just stared at those numbers.” Often a player takes a while to accept that their ticket has won a massive amount of money. Still unsure, he went to another convenience store and asked for the winning numbers to be printed out telling the store worker, “I think I won the lottery.”
Finally convinced he was now a lottery millionaire; he took his family to Indianapolis to claim his win. He decided to opt for the one-off lump sum payment of $9.8 million.
The lucky winner has been working as a semi-truck driver for over 25 years. He was driving his truck and then stopped off at the Lassus Bros. Oil on Highway 24 W in Fort Wayne. Being a regular lottery player, he had a ticket that had won free entry into another draw. The ticket that didn’t cost him a cent made him a lottery millionaire.
As well as being a truck driver, he mows grass on the side. “The dollars earned from cutting grass is my little extra money,” he said. But now he’s a multi-millionaire, so how will the windfall affect his life?
He plans on possibly buying a new vehicle and retirement is on its way. He still wants to mow grass though! In fact, rather than driving his truck, the lottery winner says he’d rather drive a school bus. “I am not a big spender,” he said but admits he may “get myself a treat.”
