Springfield woman goes to buy milk, returns home with $7 million
A Saturday afternoon trip to the store to buy milk turned into a $7 million jackpot for a Springfield couple.
Michelle Sutherland, a retired U.S. Postal Service worker, went to the store to get groceries and stopped at a Dari-Mart in Springfield, to pick up an Oregon’s Game Megabucks ticket.
“We play very casually, and usually I just buy the Megabucks tickets because it’s Oregon’s Game,” Sutherland said. “Then, the next day, Sunday morning, we were reading the paper and checked the numbers and thought there was a mistake. All our numbers matched.”
Sutherland checked the winning ticket on her phone, computer and even went and scanned the ticket at a local store. All indicators showed them winning the $7 million Oregon’s Game Megabucks jackpot. Every time they play Lottery draw games, Michelle always had a number or two on her ticket,” her husband Robert said. Now he’s glad he didn’t buy the ticket.
“When we figured out we’d won, we stayed home and contacted our financial advisor,” Michelle said. “We didn’t tell anyone.”
The couple plan on “spoiling their grandkids” over the summer with the winnings from their “quick pick” ticket, and might travel this fall. The couple opted to take the lump-sum payment and after taxes took home $2.3 million.
Michelle Sutherland joins Robert Frost, Susan Gasperini and Chris Erion as 2017 Oregon’s Game Megabucks winners this year. Sutherland purchased her ticket at the Dari-Mart on Mohawk Blvd. in Springfield. Dari-Mart will receive a 1percent selling bonus of $70,000 for selling the winning ticket.
Proceeds from Oregon Lottery sales help fund public education, parks, economic development and watershed projects. Lane County school districts received more than $24 million in Oregon Lottery dollars in the 2013-15 biennium.
