Oregon – More coffee. That's what James Wright thought when he checked his Powerball ticket.
"I got up and looked at the ticket and decided to check the numbers from my phone," he said. "I was bleary-eyed because it was early. I saw I missed the Powerball, but then the numbers matched up. I thought it couldn't be right. So I had some coffee and checked again."
After checking it a second time - and having his heart skip a beat - he woke his wife up and told her, "We have something special here.
"Overall it was a very surreal experience," he said.
Wright's winning numbers were 14-25-35-58-69, but he missed the Powerball number of 19 for the Saturday, Jan. 13 drawing for a $1 million prize. The jackpot was $50 million. He purchased his ticket from the 7-Eleven on Willamette Drive in West Linn.
Wright's prize was the third large Powerball prize won in Oregon this month. On Jan. 11, Reggie Pearne of Jacksonville, won $1 million playing Powerball. And on Jan. 4, Ronald Ceci of Grants Pass won $2 million playing Powerball. He selected the Power Play option for an additional $1, which doubled his prize to a total of $2 million.