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Single dad wins $1M on lottery ticket he bought after stopping to buy lunch

Brant Edgington didn't know he was a winner until more than a week after the drawing, when a scanner wouldn't accept his ticket.

LINCOLN, Neb. — A Nebraska man's last-minute decision to buy a lottery ticket with his lunch paid off big time. 

Brant Edgington stopped in to the Baker's grocery store in Fremont, Nebraska, to pick up a salad for the next day and decided to buy a few Mega Millions tickets for the March 22 drawing

One of those matched all five winning numbers but not the Mega Ball to win $1 million, according to the Nebraska Lottery.

While his family are avid lottery players, Edgington, a single father, said he only buys tickets when the jackpot gets high and wasn't expecting to buy a ticket at all that day. The jackpot for that drawing was $977 million. He didn't check the results until the following Saturday, when he tried to use a scanner to cash them in for any winnings. When the Check-a-Ticket scanner wouldn't read it, he asked an employee for help. 

“They disappeared for a minute,” Edgington told the Nebraska Lottery. “Then a different lady came up with her and they just stared at me. She told me, ‘Don’t pass out when I tell you this.’” 

Edgington claimed his prize on April 5. 

Credit: Nebraska Lottery
Brent Edgington, of Fremont, Nebraska, holding his $1 million Mega Millions check in April 2024.

Mega Millions and Powerball, the two largest lottery games in the United States, have both had winners take home jackpots larger than $1 billion in the last month. A Powerball player in Oregon won a jackpot worth more than $1.3 billion on Sunday, April 7, and a single ticket in New Jersey won a $1.13 billion Mega Millions prize on March 26. 

What are the largest US lottery jackpots ever won?

  1. $2.04 billion: Powerball - Nov. 7, 2022 – CA
  2. $1.76 billion – Oct. 11, 2023
  3. $1.586 billion: Powerball – Jan. 13, 2016 – CA, FL, TN
  4. $1.58 billion: Mega Millions – Aug. 8, 2023 – FL
  5. $1.537 billion: Mega Millions – Oct. 23, 2018 - SC
  6. $1.35 billion: Mega Millions - Jan. 13, 2023 - ME 
  7. $1.337 billion: Mega Millions - July 29, 2022 - IL 
  8. $1.326 billion: Powerball – April 7, 2024 - OR
  9. $1.13 billion: Mega Millions - March 26, 2024 - NJ
  10. $1.08 billion: Powerball – July 19, 2023 – CA

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