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Idaho farmer's lucky gas station stop leads to $2 million Powerball win

Truck trouble no more!

Nathan Wood with his $2 million Powerball check.
Nathan Wood with his $2 million Powerball check. Photograph credit to the Idaho Lottery.
Todd Betzold

Sometimes bad luck can turn into good luck for a person and that is exactly what happened for this new millionaire farmer from Idaho.

Fuel pump issues turn into lottery winnings

On May 6, Nathan Wood was driving in his truck when the fuel pump started making strange noises. So, he pulled into the nearest gas station to give it a look.

Since he was already there, he decided to purchase his regular Idaho Lottery tickets — two Powerball and two Mega Millions tickets for last week's draws on Monday and Tuesday nights.

Those fuel pump noises turned out to be a good thing for Wood, a local farmer from Sandpoint. A few days after buying the tickets, he found out he had won $2 million after his wife heard the news that there was a big Powerball winner from Bonner County, and she checked their tickets.

From the big news straight back to work

After finding out their tickets matched all five of the white ball numbers for that drawing, his wife came to share the news.

Wood told Lottery officials:

She told me we had matched all five of the white balls on Powerball. I couldn't believe it. And then, I went back to planting onions.

No time to waste on planting those onions for this farmer.

The winning ticket

The winning ticket Wood purchased was for the May 6 drawing. The winning white ball numbers that night were 7, 23, 24, 56, and 60, and the Powerball number was 25.

All Idaho Powerball tickets include PowerPlay, which multiplies prizes on all non-jackpot winning tickets. Wood's ticket matched all five of the white ball numbers, but not the Powerball number, which meant he won $1 million and the PowerPlay multiplied the win to $2 million.

Wood purchased the winning ticket at Arnie's Payless Gas, located at 32131 Highway 200 in Kootenai. For selling the winning ticket, Arnie's Payless Gas will receive a commission from the Idaho Lottery of $25,000.

Time for some solid decisions

After Wood let the big win sink in (and he finished planting his onions), he contacted his accountant and got all his paperwork together before making the trip to Boise to claim his big prize.

Now that he has the money in hand, Wood said he plans on fixing that fuel pump on his truck. Then he plans on making solid decisions on investing his winnings for the future.

All about the Idaho Lottery

The Idaho Lottery began in 1989 and responsibly provides a variety of entertaining games, like Powerball, Mega Millions, Idaho Cash, scratch game, and PullTabs. The Lottery offers a high degree of integrity to maximize the dividend for Idaho public schools and the permanent building fund.

Since its inception, the Idaho Lottery has sold over $5.4 billion in products, given out more than $3.1 billion in prizes to players, returned $317 million in retailer commissions, and distributed $1.19 billion in lottery revenue to Idaho public schools and buildings.

Enjoy playing the Idaho Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.

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