Incredible coincidence: Two Fort Drum reservists hit lottery jackpots

May 25, 2006, 7:21 pm (19 comments)

New York Lottery

Two families from the same upstate New York community and with ties to the U.S. Army's Fort Drum are the state's newest instant millionaires.

The winners of the two $1 million scratch-off games are from Carthage in Jefferson County, lottery officials said Thursday.

"This is unprecedented," said Jennifer Mauer, a lottery spokeswoman. "These are the first two Carthage winners we've ever had. It's completely random, so anything can happen."

Wendy and Donald Childers bought the winning $5 Lotto Luck ticket Sunday at Carthage Market. Childers, 39, is an Army reservist and 20-year civilian mechanic at Fort Drum who returned last November from a year in Iraq. Wendy Childers is a housekeeper at the Ramada Inn in Watertown.

The couple, who have three children, said they plan to invest the money after taking care of their debts and helping their children pay for college.

Stacy James, an inactive reservist, purchased a winning $5 Spread The Wealth ticket on March 12 from the Wilson Farms Sugar Creek store in Great Bend but held onto it until her husband, Michael, came home on two weeks leave in April. Michael James has been serving in Iraq since August 2005.

James, a pharmacy technician, said the couple planned to buy a house and invest the winnings. They have three children.

The odds of hitting the jackpot with a Lotto Luck ticket are about one in 2.6 million, according to the New York Lottery's Web site. The odds of hitting the jackpot with Spread The Wealth are one in 3.5 million.

AP

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CASH Only

Both games are annuity-only. I will NEVER play them.

bellyache's avatarbellyache

I doubt they care that the game is annuity. They played the game probably with the knowledge that it was annuity-only and are just happy to have won.

rdc137

Bellyache:

 Cash "bellyaches" every time an annuity is mentioned. Don't waste your time.

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

Both games are annuity-only. I will NEVER play them.

We kinda figured that.

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

lol.if someone around here hasn't figured out by now that cash only hates annuities i'll eat cheetos naked on main street in a snow storm.

Todd's avatarTodd

Does it snow in Tennessee?

beebobb

live on 35k a year or cash out for 500k now what would you do?

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

Does it snow in Tennessee?

where i live here in memphis it snows maybe once or twice a year.2004 it didn't snow once.however just to the north of where i am it gets a lot colder during the winter and they get more snow.i'm glad though because i'm not a big fan of driving in the sleet and snow.

SirMetro's avatarSirMetro

lol.if someone around here hasn't figured out by now that cash only hates annuities i'll eat cheetos naked on main street in a snow storm.

I guess the Cheetos are safe huh?

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

lol.if someone around here hasn't figured out by now that cash only hates annuities i'll eat cheetos naked on main street in a snow storm.

I guess the Cheetos are safe huh?

even the cheetos aren't safe.they have a high mortality rate......

ochoop17

what up with bellyache?

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

Both games are annuity-only. I will NEVER play them.

I have an idea. You spend the dollar, I'll take the annual payments of $50,000 a year (assuming it's for 20 years.) I'll be happy to pay you for the ticket!

Congrats to these people. They certainly deserved to win.  If you were going to pick someone, a person who just came back from Iraq is high on my list! Hurray!    

 US Flag 

tntea's avatartntea

Does it snow in Tennessee?

Rarely.. but he will love the attention.. lol

tntea's avatartntea

Someone needs a raisin

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