A southeast Iowa man said a ticket-printing mistake was the lucky break that led to his $1 million Mega Millions® win.
Josh Buster of West Burlington said that when he asked for five easy-pick plays for Friday night’s Mega Millions drawing, the clerk at his local convenience store initially printed just one play from the lottery terminal. The clerk then asked Josh if he could print four more plays for him on another ticket.
Josh said he thinks that having two tickets changed the numbers he would have received if all the plays had been printed at once. Whatever the reason, he’s thankful for the win, saying it will take away a lot of the stress in his life.
Josh, who's 40 and works as a prep chef at a Burlington restaurant, claimed his $1 million prize this afternoon at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive.
He said he realized early Saturday that he’d won big. He was up early that day to go to work and got his lottery tickets out of the console in his car to check them using the lottery’s mobile app on his smartphone.
He said when he scanned the ticket with four plays on it, the app showed that it was a $1 million winner. Josh said he was having trouble believing what he was seeing, so he Googled the winning Mega Millions numbers to make sure he had the right ones. Then he spent the rest of the day feeling like he was waiting to wake up from a dream.
Josh bought his winning ticket at MK Mini Mart, 101 E. Mount Pleasant St. in West Burlington. His winning play came within one number of having a share of Friday’s $20 million jackpot, matching the first five numbers but missing the Mega Ball.
MK Mini Mart will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling the $1 million-winning ticket.
Josh said he’ll likely will use some of his winnings to pay off his car and the mortgage on his mother’s house, then he’ll put the rest away for retirement.
Josh and sherye have ALWAYS BEEN goOD People AND THEY BOTH DESERVE A BREAK. I'm sooo glad their ship finally came in.
Posted by: Bridgette Miller | April 19, 2022 at 08:39 PM