A Five-Minute Bathroom Break in Kentucky Turned Into a $150,000 Powerball Prize

Theresa and James Stuckey of Enterprise, Alabama were driving home from Kentucky, where they had collected their son after a summer with family in Ohio. The Bowling Green area is their usual meeting point - roughly halfway for everyone. They had eaten at a busy convenience store and got back on the road. Five minutes later somebody needed a restroom, so they pulled into the Pilot Travel Center in Franklin. "We were on the road for maybe five minutes," Theresa recalled, laughing about the detour that ended up being worth six figures.

While they were stopped, Theresa bought a Powerball ticket for the Saturday, August 1 drawing with five sets of numbers, and added Power Play - the $1-per-play option that multiplies non-jackpot prizes by the multiplier drawn. The August 1 numbers came up 6, 17, 27, 48 and 50 with Powerball 5, and the Power Play was 3. One of her lines was worth $50,000. The add-on turned it into $150,000. "I always add Power Play," she said.

The Stuckeys did not find out at the counter. Back home in Alabama, Theresa downloaded the Kentucky Lottery app to check the tickets and stopped cold at the screen. "I looked at my phone, and I just sat there for a second," she said. She showed her husband the screenshot. "Well, it looks like we're going back to Kentucky tomorrow." Holding a winning ticket that size made her jumpy: "It's very nerve-wracking, having something of that amount that could easily blow away with the wind. I was like, put it in a frame or something!"

Alabama has no state lottery, so buying tickets on the road is a family tradition for the Stuckeys. "We'll pick them up randomly, just through different states," they explained. "When we're on long road trips and the jackpots are high, we talk about what we would do if we won." After taxes their prize came to $108,750, and the plans are unglamorous in the best way: pay off the vehicles, help their daughter with college, and take a family vacation. "It's all about the memories, right?" The Pilot Travel Center that sold the ticket receives $1,500.

Powerball tickets are sold across most US states, but you do not need to be in one - or in the country - to enter a drawing. A licensed lottery courier can buy an official ticket on your behalf and keep it safe: five main numbers, one Powerball, and the same Power Play add-on that tripled Theresa Stuckey's prize.