A Boyle County couple’s recent family vacation became a whole lot sunnier after discovering they had won $50,000 on a Powerball® ticket purchased online nearly six weeks earlier back home in Kentucky.
Steve Lynn and his family’s trip to St. Augustine Beach, Florida started off like all others – pool, beach and nap times.
Lynn’s wife said she decided to catch up on her emails when her husband was taking a nap.
“I had like 1,200 emails,” she joked. “He fell asleep, so I figured it was a good time to sit there and go through my emails because the kids were at the beach and the pool.”
While scrolling through her emails, she came across a Sept. 7 email from the Kentucky Lottery confirming they had won $50,000 on Powerball®.
“And I almost deleted it. I thought it was a scam or something,” she said. “I immediately logged into my (Lottery) account and there it was. I had to look at it a couple of times. Then he woke up, and I told him.”
She had to remind her husband of their Lottery play on Saturday, Sept. 6 at the Ponderosa Speedway, an auto racing dirt track in Junction City, Ky.
“We were sitting around when the races were over playing Scratch-offs and online,” Lynn said. “She had bought some tickets online. We always buy our (draw) tickets online.”
His wife said they had some winnings left in their Kentucky Lottery online account and that she bought Powerball® and Mega Millions® tickets.
The couple’s $50,000 win was part of the historic Sept. 6 $1.8 billion Powerball® drawing when tickets sold in Missouri and Texas won the jackpot.
Currently, there are three unclaimed Powerball® tickets from the $1.8 billion jackpot run: Two $50,000 tickets – sold in London and Lebanon, Ky. – and a $1 million ticket, sold in Owensboro, Ky.
Lynn’s wife said she immediately sent text messages about their win to their two daughters.
“One of them asked if we could stay on vacation longer,” she laughed.
Lynn said their drive back to Kentucky was “a little bit easier. We had plenty of gas money.”
The couple came into the Kentucky Lottery recently – 40 days after purchasing the winning ticket online – to claim their prize: $36,000 after taxes.
They plan to pay off their truck and buy their grandchildren a new swing set.
In 2025, the Kentucky Lottery paid out more than $1.6 billion in prizes. Kentucky Lottery proceeds have funded scholarships and grants for more than 1 million Kentucky college students.