He was watching the news after Powerball drawing — and realized he won big in Michigan

A 62-year-old man was watching the news the morning after a recent Powerball drawing when he realized he can now retire earlier than he once thought.

“They showed the winning Powerball numbers from the night before,” Norman Doerr, of Ubly, told Michigan Lottery officials. “I recognized the numbers as soon as they came up on the screen and I knew I was a big winner!”

The numbers would have been easy to recognize, as he’s been using the same two sets of numbers in the Powerball lottery game for about eight years, according to a Nov. 4 news release.

“I had to pause the TV and look over the numbers a few times to make sure I wasn’t mistaken,” the Huron County man said in the release.

But he was right — the five white balls drawn in the Oct. 19 drawing were his numbers, 06-08-15-27-42.

This meant Doerr won a $1 million Powerball prize, officials said.

“Winning is a great feeling and is going to allow me to retire earlier than I planned,” he told lottery officials.

Doerr bought his winning ticket at Fast Freddie’s in Ubly, about 110 miles north of Detroit.

The only number he was missing was the red powerball, which would have won him a $508 million jackpot. Nobody has claimed the Powerball jackpot since Aug. 3, when someone in Pennsylvania won $206.9 million.

The next Powerball drawing is Saturday, Nov. 5 with a lottery jackpot estimated to be worth $1.6 billion. This is “the world’s largest lotto prize ever offered,” according to Powerball officials.

The largest Powerball jackpot ever won was $1.586 billion and claimed by three winners in California, Florida and Tennessee in 2016, according to McClatchy News.

This story was originally published November 4, 2022 at 7:11 AM with the headline "He was watching the news after Powerball drawing — and realized he won big in Michigan."