Wilbur Brown was at the Moose Lodge in Springfield, Oregon on Christmas Eve when a friend bought a “$26 for $25” Megabucks ticket. As Brown’s friend explained to him, the ticket allowed players to buy 26 draws in a row for only $25. Brown also decided to buy a ticket that gave him access to the draws until February 19, 2022.
But after a few weeks, he forgot about the ticket.
“After the first few draws, I was checking my ticket,” Brown told the Oregon Lottery. “Then I just forgot about it and didn’t check.”
It wasn’t until February that Brown found himself back at Moose Lodge. The server scanned his ticket and received the message “Win a big lottery”. Brown and his friends took to the internet to find out exactly what that meant and learned that he had hit the $8.9 million jackpot.
According to the Oregon Lottery, Brown’s lucky numbers were 15, 33, 34, 40, 42, and 47. He chose the 30-year annuity option for his winnings and will receive a check for just over $200,000 after taxes each year until the prize is will be paid.
The odds of hitting the jackpot were only 1 in 6,135,756, according to the Oregon Lottery on its website.
The box where Brown bought his winning ticket also got lucky with his purchase. With Brown’s win, Moose Lodge will receive an $89,000 retail bonus, which is 1 percent of the jackpot.
According to the manager of the lodge, the victory came in handy.
“The last couple of years have been a test for us,” Moose Lodge manager Michael Scott said, according to CNN affiliate KPIC. “The impact of receiving such a large amount of money is enormous! We will be working with our members to figure out how best to use the bonus money.”