A group of longtime friends who grew up together in Lincoln on Tuesday claimed a $1 million prize in the Nebraska Lottery.
Calling themselves “The Five,” Douglas Murray, Felipe Osorio, Eric Cobb, Chris Hinkley and Yevgeniy Koval, bought a ticket for the Powerball drawing at a U-Stop convenience store on 12th Street last week before the Nov. 21 drawing. Their winning ticket matched all five winning numbers (07, 14, 23, 38, 55) but failed to match the Powerball number, according to a Nebraska Lottery press release.
The group began pooling their money to buy lottery tickets during the October jackpot run that pushed the Mega Millions prize to more than $1.5 billion and the Powerball to $688 million, and they have continued to buy. Most of them live out-of-state — including one of the group who lives in Panama — but they happened to be together when they won the prize.
“We all came for Thanksgiving this year,” Murray told Lottery officials. “Usually we just come for Christmas. We found out we won on Black Friday morning.”
No one has claimed either of the large jackpot prizes since the October run ended. The Powerball jackpot now stands at $171 million and the MegaMillions prize at $172 million.
An Elkhorn woman also claimed a large prize. Linda Huggins bought a Nebraska Pick 5 ticket Nov. 23 with her husband, Jack, while they were on their way to a party to watch the Nebraska Cornhuskers play Iowa. The Huskers lost, but the Hugginses won $290,000.
Friday was also their wedding anniversary.
