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ALBUQUERQUE MAN WINS $420,000 NEW MEXICO LOTTERY PRIZE
August 28, 2011
After winning a $5,000 Scratcher prize in July, Albuquerque resident Michael Ponder tried his hand at the New Mexico Lottery’s Roadrunner Cash game and won a $420,000 jackpot.
“I’m beginning to feel real lucky,” Ponder told lottery officials when he claimed his prize today."
Ponder’s quick-pick ticket for the game’s Wednesday drawing matched the winning numbers of 2, 5, 6, 11 and 20. He went to bed after the drawing knowing that the jackpot had been hit, but he didn’t realize he was the winner until the next day when he compared his ticket to the winning numbers posted at the lottery’s website.
“I must have looked at the ticket and looked at the (computer) screen three or four times,” Ponder said. “‘I said to myself, ‘I hit it. I got it.’”
When his wife, Karla, returned home from running errands, Ponder shared the good news.
“I said ‘Oh, by the way, we won $420,000,’” Ponder recalled.
“He was so calm,” Karla Ponder said. “I just couldn’t believe it. It didn’t process.”
The odds of winning a Roadrunner Cash jackpot are 1 in 435,897.
The Ponders said they plan to give the prize to their two daughters in Texas who have college loans to pay.
The winning ticket came from Albertson’s No. 938 located at 7101 Wyoming Blvd. NE in Albuquerque. Previously, the store has sold eight large prize-winning lottery tickets ranging between $1,000 and $29,000. The store is now eligible for a $1,000 bonus for selling a jackpot-winning Roadrunner Cash ticket of more than $100,000.
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