(Headline USA) Before claiming the prize last week, a group of employees and teachers from a Kentucky middle school who bought a $1 million Powerball winning ticket found a perfect hiding spot where nobody would think to look.
They tucked it in a math text book.
With literacy rates having reached some of their lowest levels in decades following the COVID-19 lockdowns, a textbook may have been the last place any meddling students would think to look.
The group of 30 educators, some retired, met at Rector A. Jones Middle School in northern Kentucky near Cincinnati and have been playing the Powerball together for eight years. They call themselves the “Jones 30.”
Members include counselors, administrators, teachers and some retirees from the school, according to a media release from the state lottery.
They’ve been playing the same Powerball numbers since 2019, when they drew them randomly from a hat.
On Saturday, those numbers, 7-38-65-66-68, finally hit. Their ticket matched all five white numbered balls in the drawing, but missed the Powerball, giving them a $1 million prize.
After school ended on Tuesday, the group carpooled to Louisville, about a 90-minute drive, with the winning ticket safely stashed away in a math textbook, page 200.
Arriving at lottery headquarters in Louisville, officials greeted them each with their individual winnings — $24,000 each after taxes.
Kentucky Lottery President Mary Harville handed them the winning checks.
”Kentucky Lottery games create fun for our players, and these winning educators were having the time of their lives,” Harville said in the release.
The group members said they plan to continue playing the lottery. Some plan to invest the money while others will use it for travel or home repairs, the lottery said.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
