Lottery Moments

It’s going to be a very merrry Christmas indeed for Georgia Lottery winner Caleb Steele, of Acworth, Georgia.

Steele, according to a story in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution (a place where I used to work as a reporter), took enough time off from work on a recent Thursday morning to collect the $500,000 prize he won on a scratch-off lottery ticket. Then it was back to work — installing a basketball court in the yard of a nearby home.

“I’m a working man,” said Steele, at a Georgia Lottery press conference.

He bought the $5 Players’s Club lottery ticket on Nov. 7, his mother’s birthday. But this wasn’t the only time he had won playing scratch games. He had previously won up to $100 playing scratch-off games.

It was a few days later, that Steele and his wife Nicole drove to Atlanta to collect their winnings, after taxes, $345,000.

When he realized he’d won, he said, he immediately called his wife. “I asked her if she loved me, and then I went to work,” said Steele, who who installs epoxy floors and sports courts for a living.

After collecting his winnings, the Steeles started planning a future that will be debt-free.
“These are hard times, and I want to do what we have to survive,” said Steele.

By the Numbers:
Tuesday’s Mega Millions jackpot is now at $73 million.
Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot is $50 million.
Friday Euro-Millions jackpot is 15 million Euros.

Good luck everyone.