A southeastern Iowa man said he believes a ticket printing error was the lucky break that led to his $1 million Mega Millions win.
Josh Buster, of West Burlington, told Iowa Lottery officials that when he called for five automatic plays for the Mega Millions drawing of the Friday night, the clerk at your local store initially printed just one play from the lottery terminal. The clerk then asked Buster if he could print four more plays for him on a separate ticket.
“I feel like that changed the numbers I would have gotten if he had put them all on one instead of making that mistake,” Buster said.
Buster, from 40 years old, works as a prep chef at a Burlington restaurant, and claimed his $1 million prize on Monday at the headquarters of the Iowa Lottery in Clive, reported this institution in a statement.
Buster said that he realized early on Saturday that he had won big in the lottery.
“I got up to go to work early in the morning. I opened the lottery app and scanned my tickets,” he recalled. “I always keep my tickets in my car console. I scanned them in the car, got scared and ran inside”.
Buster confessed that at first he had a hard time believing what he was seeing.
“Normally I don’t have good luck, so I thought it was a mistake and there was going to be a mistake,” he said. “So I googled the lottery numbers to make sure I had the correct ones, and they were correct! And then the rest of the day, I was waiting to wake up from a dream.”
Buster bought the winning ticket from him at MK Mini Mart, 100 E. Mount Pleasant St. in West Burlington. His winning play was one number away from a share of Friday’s $20 million jackpot, matching the first five numbers, but losing the Mega Ball.
The winning numbers of the lottery draw Mega Millions for Friday 04 for April were: 4-17-20-46-100 and Mega Ball 23. The Megaplier® was 4.
Buster’s prize is the second of at least $1 million won this year in Iowa.
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