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US couple win R744.8m jackpot
30/06/2007 13:06 - (SA)
Oklahoma City - Don Harvey's long-haul truck had almost three million kilometres on it when its engine died this week. Now he and his wife are millionaires who bought the winning ticket for a $105.8m (R744.8m) lottery jackpot.
Harvey and his wife, Joyce, said they will pay off bills, help family members and think about buying a new home with their winnings. They chose to receive a $33.3m lump sum after taxes instead of the full amount paid out over 29 years.
Joyce Harvey said she was in "absolute disbelief and shock" when she checked the numbers on her computer on Thursday night and found she had the winner.
"Basically, I just broke down and cried," she said Friday.
It was a quirky thing that she won, she said, because she always had bought lottery tickets using the same numbers. She said she recently bought a ticket, but the numbers "came out wrong." She said she decided to use those same numbers when she bought the latest ticket and bingo, it was a winner.
The couple said they were "pretty satisfied with our life" and would have to think long and hard about what do with the money after first paying off bills. But they do not expect things to change too much.
A truck driver all his adult life, the 64-year-old Don Harvey said he did not plan to stop working.
"I've got to have something to do," he said. "I can't go fishing all the time and I don't play golf."
Only one ticket sold for Wednesday night's drawing matched the six numbers drawn. The odds of winning were about 176 million to one, said Jim Scoggins, executive director of the lottery.
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