$1 Million Lotto Win For Morris County Breakfast Club

CHESTER, NJ — After more than 20 years of playing the lottery, the Chester Area Professional Club and their long-time waitress won $1 million earlier this year.

The business networking group meets every Wednesday for breakfast, and buys a lottery ticket for that night's drawing. "Practicing smart group play, they wrote up rules for collecting money each week; determining what would happen if someone missed a drawing; and ensuring that participants had a copy of the group ticket," lottery officials said.

Mitchell Ross, of Chester, usually holds on to the ticket but was away on vacation the week the group won and someone else had taken over ticket duties.

When Ross came back from vacation the ticket holder had left for their own trip. Wanting to take the ticket somewhere safe, Ross went to his friends workplace to pick up the ticket.

The 13 members of the Chester Area Professional Club and their long-time waitress will split the $1 million. Their ticket was purchased at Country Farms in Berkeley Heights.

Image via NJ Lottery