$1 million Powerball winner waits to tell wife on her birthday. ‘We’re still in shock’
A Powerball player scored a $1 million prize — but didn’t tell his wife right away.
Instead, the husband waited so he could share the good news on her birthday.
“We’re still in shock,” Patrick Lash told the Virginia Lottery in a March 5 news release. “It feels great!”
Lash revealed the big surprise after he tried his luck on a $2 Powerball ticket. He bought it at a Wegmans grocery store in Fredericksburg, a roughly 60-mile drive north from Richmond, lottery officials wrote on their website.
It turns out, Lash’s ticket narrowly missed a $285 million jackpot prize. But it matched enough numbers in the Jan. 13 drawing to be worth $1 million, McClatchy News reported.
Lash got richer with an Easy Pick ticket, meaning a lottery computer randomly chose the lucky numbers for him. Lottery officials didn’t say how much he kept after taxes.
The prize winner, who is retired, lives in Fredericksburg. After the big win, he and his wife hope to move to be closer to their daughter.
What to know about Powerball
To score the jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.
The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.
Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.
Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 8:16 AM with the headline "$1 million Powerball winner waits to tell wife on her birthday. ‘We’re still in shock’."
