(AP) — A 70-year-old Thibodaux man is the Louisiana Lottery’s latest millionaire.
Robert Thibodaux Sr. said he regularly buys $5 worth of tickets every Saturday — two Lotto tickets, two Powerball tickets and one Easy 5 ticket.
For the Oct. 29 drawing, the store clerk accidentally added the Power Play option to both of his Powerball plays and rather than refuse the tickets, he paid the extra $2 to cover the difference. That option increases any non-jackpot prize up to five times.
And what a difference it made.
When his wife, Brenda, checked the winning numbers the next day, she found that he had matched all five white ball numbers. He thought he’d won about $20,000. But in fact, he hit $200,000 — five times — for the $1 million jackpot.
After learning of his luck, Thibodaux says he “went to bed a nutria and woke up a mink!”
Last week, Thibodaux arrived at Louisiana Lottery headquarters in Baton Rouge to claim his prize. He received $700,000 after federal and state taxes were withheld. Shop Rite #51 in Thibodaux, which sold the ticket, will get a bonus of $10,000 — 1 percent of the prize — for selling him the winning ticket.
Brenda Thibodaux had said if she ever won the lottery, she would “bulldoze her house and build a new one.” Her husband, a commissioner on the Bayou Lafourche Fresh Water District, agreed that a new home on the bayou would be in their future.
The winning lottery numbers were: 11, 16, 40, 51, 56 and Powerball 38.
 
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