Timothy McCurdy’s wife Lorrie only plays Powerball if the drawing falls on her birthday, which it did this past Saturday.
“Lorrie was sick in bed, too sick to go out and buy a ticket,” explained Timothy McCurdy. “So she asked me to go to the store and pick one up for her.”
The Eudora resident intended to purchase just one play, but for some reason he couldn’t really explain, at the last minute he decided to purchase five Quick Pick plays. On the last play, the ticket matched four of the first five numbers and the Powerball, winning a $10,000 prize.
The winning numbers for the Aug. 16 drawing are 7-8-17-48-59 Powerball 9. The McCurdys’ ticket missed hitting the jackpot by just one number. Instead of 17, they had the number 14.
“I checked the ticket on the Kansas Lottery website Sunday morning, and I couldn’t believe how close we came to winning a $50 million jackpot,” McCurdy said. “Even though we didn’t win the jackpot, we’re happy with $10,000. Who knows? Maybe we’ll win again sometime. Statistically it can happen. Everybody has the same chance to win every time.”
Although they won their big Powerball prize on Lorrie’s birthday, Timothy McCurdy said they agreed to put the money in the bank instead of splurging on an extravagant birthday present.
“We’re going to save it for retirement,” he said. McCurdy is employed as a maintenance mechanic at Vitamin Vegetable Foods in Kansas City, Kan. Lorrie McCurdy is a project manager at Sprint.
The winning ticket was purchased at Hy-Vee Food and Drug 1377, located at 3504 Clinton Parkway in Lawrence. No ticket matched all numbers in Saturday’s drawing, so the jackpot rolls to an estimated $60 million for Wednesday night’s drawing.