LOUISVILLE, Ky. — While no Kentuckian won the Powerball's billion-dollar jackpot, one Graves County resident did walk away with some hefty winnings thanks to a $3 ticket!
According to the Kentucky Lottery, Rickie Melton, of Symsonia, Ky., won $2 million, the largest prize from Saturday night's drawing.
Melton's winning ticket matched all five white ball numbers, but not the Powerball number, to win the game's second prize of a million dollars.
He added the Power Play option to the ticket, an additional dollar per play, doubling the prize to $2 million.
"It's been nerve-wracking knowing we've won and having to hold on to the ticket until Wednesday," Melton said after he and his wife made the trip to the lottery's headquarters in Louisville on Nov. 5.
Melton said he was sitting in his driveway getting ready to leave for breakfast Sunday morning when he reached in the console of his truck and pulled out his Powerball tickets to check if he had won anything in Saturday's drawing.
"It was the last ticket I checked," he said. "I got really nervous about matching the fourth number. On the fifth, I was so nervous I couldn't leave the driveway and had to go back into the house."
Melton told lottery officials he was trying to hold his excitement while his wife, Karen, slept after working a late shift as a nurse.
"I kept pacing the floor until I just had to go wake her up," he said, adding that his wife wasn't too happy at first about being woke up until she heard the big news.
Lottery officials say Melton bought the $3 winning ticket from a vending machine at the Walmart in Benton. He chose to let the machine pick his numbers.
After taxes, the western Kentucky couple walked out of the headquarters with a check for more than $1.4 million. They said they plan to consult a financial planner and will invest some of their winnings.
The couple also plans to take an Alaskan cruise and buy a new car.
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