Woodbridge man’s winning lottery ticket purchase was a “mistake”

Michael Donnelly of Woodbridge hadn’t intended to play Cash4Life®.  Instead, like millions of people across the nation, he was watching the Powerball jackpot rise to historic heights.

As customer service manager at the Harris-Teeter at 6351 Columbia Pike in Falls Church, he was busy ringing up Powerball tickets for customers, but for one of those customers, he accidently hit the wrong button on the terminal. Instead of Powerball, he hit the Cash4Life® button and generated a ticket that the customer didn’t want, so he ended up buying the ticket himself.

That “mistake” won him the top prize.

His ticket matched all six numbers in the January 7 Cash4Life® drawing. Mr. Donnelly’s prize was a choice between $1,000 per day for the rest of his life or a one-time cash option of $7 million before taxes. He chose the cash option.

He didn’t realize he’d won until a few days later when a customer said she had heard on the news that a winning ticket had been sold at the store. That’s when he checked the numbers and immediately called his wife, Michele, with the good news.

“If that’s true, you have to come home because I’m about to have a heart attack!” she replied.

On January 29 the Woodbridge man received his check from the Virginia Lottery. Harris-Teeter received a $50,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling the winning ticket.

“It still hasn’t hit me yet,” he said.

Cash4Life® is played in Virginia, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Drawings are held Monday and Thursday evenings at 9:00 p.m. Each play costs $2.  The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 21.8 million