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LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A central Kentucky autoworker is lucky he
held on to the $128 million Powerball ticket he bought on Christmas Eve
during some last-minute shopping — after all, it was printed by mistake.
Lottery officials said Rob Anderson and his wife, Tuesday, were winners of
the largest jackpot in the state's history.
On Wednesday the couple was introduced at the state lottery headquarters in
Louisville. The Andersons said they didn't initially believe they had won
the $128.6 million jackpot after buying lottery tickets together for 12
years.
We didn't hit it, that's not us," Rob Anderson said he told his wife after
showing her the winning ticket the morning after the Dec. 26 drawing.
"Something's not right!"
Clerk goofed
Rob Anderson, 39, said the winning ticket was a misprint that he decided to
keep while buying stocking stuffers at a Georgetown, Ky., gas station. He
wanted to buy $1 lottery tickets for three people, but the clerk goofed.
"The clerk ran the $3 Quick Pick but he put it all on one ticket, and I was
like, doggone it, I needed three separate tickets," Anderson said.
The clerk asked him if he wanted to keep the ticket, which had three sets of
random numbers.
"Yeah, I got a couple extra dollars," Anderson said, and he bought three
more tickets to give as gifts.
When he arrived at home, he tossed the ticket on his dresser and didn't
think about it until the Sunday morning after the drawing. When he
remembered it, he checked the Powerball numbers and they matched one of the
sets of numbers on the botched ticket: 32-36-37-41-53 and Powerball 30.
The couple, who work at a plant building seats for Toyotas, said they were
hesitant to go public about the winnings. They declined to say if they had
children.
'We'll still clip coupons'
"We're really grounded people," Rob Anderson said. "My wife taught me well,
so to speak, to hang on to that dollar and see how far it gets you. We'll
still clip coupons and still look for the clearance rack."
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