Norwalk Man Wins $1 Million in Powerball Just Ahead of Blizzard

Just before the blizzard blew in to Connecticut and dumped a significant amount of snowfall on Monday, a Norwalk man headed to the Connecticut Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill to scoop up a very unexpected and welcome $1 million winning.

“I woke up early on Sunday. I couldn’t sleep,” J. Woodard told lottery officials Monday. “When I saw no one won the Powerball jackpot, I had a weird feeling that maybe I won something. So, I went to a retailer, scanned my ticket in a ticket checker and saw I won $1 million. I scanned it twice to be sure and then I ran out of the store and went home. When I saw my wife she asked what was wrong, I told her, ‘We won a million dollars!’”

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The winning Powerball numbers on Jan. 24 were 16 - 19 - 20 - 29 - 33, the Powerball number was 10. Woodard’s first five “birthday” numbers were a perfect match, but he missed the Powerball number. In total, 12,891 winning Powerball tickets were sold statewide for that date with prizes ranging from $4 to $1,000,000.

Woodard’s plans for his $1 million prize win are simple, he plans to pay off the house, put money away for the kids’ college fund and save the rest for a cushion.

Woodard’s winning ticket was purchased at Spring Hill Liquor on 1 Spring Hill Avenue in Norwalk. For selling the ticket, Spring Hill Liquor will receive a check from the Connecticut Lottery for $2,500.

Since the new Powerball game began on Jan. 15, Connecticut has sold 23 prize winning tickets each worth $1 million and another 7 tickets that were “Power Played” for the game’s $2 million prize. The overall odds of winning a Powerball prize are 1 in 31.8. The odds of winning a Powerball Match 5 prize are 1 in 5,153,633. Odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 175,223,510.

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