Susan Gray might not be a name that means all that much to you, but it’s undoubted that she has created a world first in July.
The American is believed to be the first lottery winner in the world to share the jackpot with herself!
She had mistakenly purchased tickets for the same Carolina Cash 5 draw, meaning instead to buy into two different draws in the USA.
Naturally, Susan used her lucky numbers on both tickets – to her shock (and mild embarrassment) she had purchased them for the same lottery….and watched on as she landed the $305,000 – £220,000 – top prize.
The North Carolinan had been playing with the same numbers ‘for years’, and often played a selection of different draws each week….when she didn’t mess up her order, that is.
“I thought it was a different draw,” she admitted afterwards.
“It was really an accident that I played both. I was really shocked. I couldn’t believe it. Those are numbers I’ve been using for years.”
In the happiest slice of good fortune of them all, Gray would later find out that she was the sole jackpot winner – although $100,000 of her new riches were taken from her in taxation.
Still, the happiest of accidents have improved Susan’s life – and bank balance – significantly, although there’s no word yet on how she intends to spend the money.
Lightning Really Does Strike Twice
If you thought winning the same lottery with two different tickets was special, wait until you hear about those that have won two different lottery draws.
It’s amazing to think that these guys and gals carried on buying tickets even after landing the jackpot the first time round, but here they are defying extraordinary odds to win the lottery twice.
The story of Bill Morgan is like something from a Hollywood movie. He was the humble truck driver in Melbourne who fell on hard times and was living in a caravan. After suffering a heart attack – in which he effectively ‘died’ for 14 minutes – Morgan decided to play the lottery….and went on to win a brand new car.
Filming his incredible story, a local TV news crew wanted a re-enactment piece for their footage, and so shot Morgan returning to the same shop where he brought the original ticket. And to the bemusement of everyone – including a scarcely-moved Morgan – he won again, and trousered $250,000 for the privilege.
Robert Hamilton won the lottery twice in the space of three months in 2014, continuing to buy tickets even after he had scooped $1 million the first time around. Just weeks later he would net another $1 million prize, paying off his debts, buying his house outright and treating himself to a motorcycle.
A Scunthorpe couple also twice won £1 million on the EuroMillions after David Long told his friends that had a feeling he would win again. As well as the wonga, the Long family also won a brand new car for their troubles too.
Some double lottery winners celebrate like mad, as you would expect, and yet others – inexplicably – take it all in their stride. Robert Stuart won a $1 million jackpot in May 2019, and carried on living in the same trailer as he did before….all while retaining his job as a concrete hauler working eleven hour shifts.
In the November of that year, he won again – this time $100k – and once more nothing changed in the 65-year-old’s life.
“Ain’t nothing really different,” he said.
“I do the same thing over and over.”