Maple Grove Man Returns To US, Learns He Won Gopher 5 Jackpot

Quy Nguyen of Maple Grove was the last of his co-workers to find out they had won the $120,000 Gopher 5 jackpot together. He had been traveling outside of the United States during the announcement. When he arrived back in the country, he became worried when he noticed his phone had been bombarded with voicemails and text messages.

“I thought something must be wrong,” Nguyen said in a statement. “Then I realized it was happy news! It was a great surprise!”

The eight co-workers from Abbott Laboratories, a medical device company in Little Canada, won a total of $120,000.

The members of the “Lucky 8” have been pooling their money together for only two months before luck struck. Aroumy Souriyathay of Cottage Grove organized the group and said she wanted to play Gopher 5 because of the game odds.

“It seems more winnable than Powerball or Mega Millions,” she said. Turns out, she was right. One of the group’s quick-pick tickets for the Oct. 16 drawing matched all five numbers to win the jackpot.

Souriyathay discovered their win the following weekend and tried sharing the news with the rest of the group, but had little luck. She finally got a hold of Sally Husnik of Vadnais Heights, whose first reaction was, “That’s great—let’s buy more tickets!” “I didn’t actually comprehend how much money that really was,” Husnik said

The group claimed their prize at lottery headquarters Oct. 30. Each group member received a check for about $15,000 before tax withholdings, according to a news release.

The other members of the Lucky 8 are Teresa Tollefson of Hugo, Thang Phan of Little Canada, Mai Lor of North St. Paul and Amanda Vaun and Charlotta Sherrier of Saint Paul.

The SuperAmerica at 1624 Hastings Avenue in Newport sold the winning ticket.

Image via Minnesota Lottery