Single dad who stepped out for a lunch salad ends up winning a $1 million lottery

Life surprises us in a myriad of ways. Sometimes, even small decisions in our lives can lead to big changes. However, this single dad would have never thought that his trip to a grocery store to buy a lunch salad would completely change his life. Brant Edington is a single dad from Nebraska. While his father and grandfather are great enthusiasts of the Mega Millions Lottery, as well as Powerball players, Edington, hardly ever takes a chance at the lottery until it offers a significantly large prize. So, when he entered the store, he had no intention of buying a lottery ticket.

“I don’t play all that often,” Edington told Nebraska Lottery. “As a single parent, baloney is more important, financially.” However, one can say that the odds were stacked in his favor even when he wasn't planning on buying a ticket that day. He eventually ended up buying one and waited patiently as the person in front of him cashed in on their scratch cards. Edington didn’t look at his tickets after the March 22 drawing, per KX News. So, he didn't know that his tickets matched the winning numbers. Five winning numbers matched with Edington's ticket. They were 03, 08, 31, 35, and 44 but not the Mega Ball, 16. When Edington went to get his ticket checked there was some issue with the scanner and he had to ask the clerk to help. Upon checking the ticket "They disappeared for a minute." Then a different lady came up and asked him to not faint when he received the news, "Don’t pass out when I tell you this." Edington was the winner of a $1 million lottery.

He collected his prize on April 5. According to the lottery, the chances of winning $1 million are 1 in 12,607,306, while the overall chances of winning any prize are 1 in 24. Hence, the odds are massively stacked against a person. It was indeed a very lucky day for Edington and a very productive trip to the grocery store. Everything was in his favor that day as the man shared that he usually doesn't have cash to spare for buying a lottery ticket. The Mega Millions is a multi-state jackpot game currently offered by 45 state lotteries as per their website. It is also offered by the District of Colombia and the US Virgin Islands.

Previously, the jackpot from the game climbed up to $1.13 billion on March 25 after no one matched all of the winning numbers from the March 22 drawing. The amount for the jackpot had reached this point because no one had managed to win it since last December until a person from New Jersey finally won it.