The odds of winning the lottery are one in several million, but a Michigan man did just that after he won the $80million Powerball jackpot.
Phillip Chippewa, 54, of Sutton Bay, matched all the winning numbers, 01-09-22-36-68, in the September 21 Powerball lottery.
Chippewa usually buys a few lottery tickets when the jackpot becomes substantial, but he almost skipped out on buying the fateful tickets this time around.
‘Any time I see the jackpot getting up there I buy a few tickets and hope for the best,’ he told WXYZ.
Phillip (left) and Dawn (middle) Chippewa of Sutton Bay, Michigan, won the $80 million Powerball jackpot in September
‘I stopped at Barrels and Barrels the day of the drawing and almost walked out without buying the tickets, but at the last minute, I decided to get four plays.’
After buying them, Chippewa placed the tickets inside his truck.
Dawn Chippewa, Phillip’s wife, first heard there was a Powerball winner after her sister texted her.
‘…My sister sent me a text saying that someone who played at Barrels and Barrels won the Powerball jackpot,’ she said
‘My first thought was: “He better have bought some tickets”.’
The lottery tickets and the grand prize were forgotten until their Sunday family dinner.
Dawn (left) and Phillip (right) plan to by new homes for each of their children, as well as white Dodge Challenger for Phillip
Phillip purchased the winning ticket from the convenience store Barrels & Barrels in Sutton Bay (pictured)
Dawn said: ‘After I got home, we were doing our usual Sunday night routine when my sister sent another text to ask if we’d checked Phillip’s tickets. Until then I had forgotten all about the news of a big winner.’
Phillip dashed out to check his tickets and in seconds he knew their family were winners.
‘I didn’t have to look past the first line to see I was the winner. Of course, my wife and son thought I was playing a trick, so my son pulled the numbers up on his phone and read them out loud while Dawn and I looked at the ticket together,’ he said.
‘By the time he was done, we both had tears in our eyes.’
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot at 1 in 292.2 million.
To officially confirm their big win, the couple went back to the Barrels and Barrels where the exciting adventure began.
Phillip said: ‘As soon as we walked in the clerk asked: “Are you guys the big winners?”. ‘I handed him the ticket and said: “We’re about to find out”.’
That was the moment that changed the Chippewa’s lives forever.
‘With seven children and 21 grandchildren, I’ve always said that I might not have the most money, but I am rich with family,’ he said.
‘Now, I have all the money I’ll ever need and can help my family for generations. That means everything to me.’
Dawn said: ‘We’ve been working a lot of our lives so it’s hard to believe that we’re going to have a chance to do something different. Something more for our grandchildren.’
Phillip plans to buy homes for himself and each of his children in addition to sharing the winnings with his family.
He also wants to buy a white Dodge Challenger and a new motorcycle.
The family took the lump sum option, getting around $42 million after taxes.
Phillip (top middle): ‘With seven children and 21 grandchildren, I’ve always said that I might not have the most money, but I am rich with family’
‘Winning is life changing, but it’s not going to change who we are,” said Phillip, who is a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
And to the surprise Phillip’s boss, it hasn’t.
‘Every day when I come to work my boss asks me: “Why are you here?” I just tell him that I was hired to do a job and I’m not going to abandon anyone just because I won.’
‘We’ll both retire in time, but we believe in being good to the community that has been so good to us.’
The Chippewa’s have become the fourth Powerball winners from the state of Michigan since 2010.
Indiana has the highest number of Powerball winners at 39.