Beach Park, Ill. – On his day off work, Keith Foss, assistant manager for a grocery and drug store chain, stopped at a local gas station to purchase an instant ticket. After losing on a $10 game, the “Hot Spot Summer” instant ticket caught his eye. Foss thought, “what the heck, I have a good feeling about this ticket,” and decided to purchase it.

“My strategy is to scratch off all the numbers first and leave the prizes to the end,” said Foss. “As I was scratching off the prizes, I was thinking to myself there’s a $1,000, $100,000 and the $1 million. I thought for sure my mind was playing tricks on me.”

Foss turned to the woman working the counter and asked her to double check the ticket for him. As soon as she confirmed it was a $1 million winning ticket, he quickly signed the back, went home and called the Illinois Lottery check writing center in Des Plaines to claim the prize.

The 51-year-old, father of five, plans to build a new home, purchase used cars for the three children that still live at home, give a monetary amount to the two children that already have vehicles and invest the rest of his winnings for the future.

The Illinois Lottery’s “Hot Spot Summer” instant ticket was part of the Million Dollar Summer suite and offered players the chance to win up to $1,000,000. Sold at $10 a ticket, players had a chance to win up to 16 times.

Beach Park Marathon, located at 38947 Green Bay Road in Waukegan, will receive a bonus of 1 percent of the top prize, or $10,000, for selling the winning ticket.