Hunter wins 2x2 lottery
Hunter wins 2x2 lottery
By ALLAN TINKER
Taylor Springs, Illinois hunter and resident Beau Elam has been coming to the McClusky area to hunt ducks for six or seven years. This year, as many before, he visited the C-Store daily, if not more often.
When he first came here, he didn’t “know a single person.” Now he brings his dad and hunting buddies along and visits with ‘old friends’ he has met while hunting. He stays at the McClusky Motor Motel, eats at the Union Grill (“a pretty good restaurant”) or buys ND state lottery tickets at the C-Store.
Since he visits the store every day, checking his tickets for a winner is easy. This year, during Columbus Day week, it got exciting… very. He had won $22,000.
What to do, what to do? Sign the ticket, if not done already, quickly. Go to the lottery office in Bismarck. Where is that? The lady at the C-Store gave him the number. It was 3:30 p.m., the day before he and his companions were leaving in early morning to return home.
The lottery office was open until 5 p.m. “You can make it if you leave right away,” the lottery office staff told him. He did. He told them he didn’t mind them giving out his information; and they said they would take a photo, but seemed to forget. He took his winnings and went back to get ready for his trip home, just a little bit richer.
No fanfare, no publicity and people cheering. Just got in the vehicle and returned home with Rigel, his hunting companion, a yellow Labrador retriever. It is a 17-hour drive back home, and they left at four in the morning.
The reason that Elam enjoys playing the state lottery games here is that the big ones, such as Powerball are multi-state games and it so happens that he is employed by a state agency that the Illinois lottery is under, along with the other states. He cannot play the games legally, so treats himself to playing the state games when he travels. “I can play a long time now, and still be ahead,” he laughed.
When he bought his ticket, he also had a “free one” from the previous chances he had purchased, so he doesn’t know which ticket it was that ‘got lucky’.
