Man laid off last year wins $50K

Sunday, March 19, 2006 posted 03:15 AM EST

After 20 years of regularly playing the Wisconsin Lottery ?a few tickets here and a few tickets there ?Dan Murray figures he's finally come out even.

The 41-year-old Sheboygan man recently won $50,000 in a Powerball drawing, a stroke of luck Murray says "couldn't have happened at a better time."

Married to Teri and a father of two, Murray was laid off about a year ago from a job at Vinyl Plastics Inc. in Sheboygan, where he was employed for 18 years.

He's still looking for work, but his luck is looking up.

Murray matched four correct numbers, plus the Powerball, to win $10,000 in the March 8 drawing, a prize boosted to $50,000 because he spent another buck on the lottery's "power play" option, which multiplied his winnings by five.

Murray bought two tickets for the drawing at his usual place, Ryan's of Sunnyside, a gas station and convenience store at 4650 S. 12th St.

The day after the drawing, Murray went back to the store to buy tickets for the next Powerball game and check his numbers, and he remembers the clerk, Linda Steen, was "kind of ecstatic," asking him if he was "the one."

"The one what?" Murray recalled asking. "(She said) the $50,000 winner!"

Murray's first ticket was a loser, but the second one revealed the good news ?though he had to go to a lottery office in Fond du Lac to claim the big prize.

Muriel Ryan, president and owner of Ryan's Oil Co., said the last big lottery ticket sold at one of its stores was at least a decade ago, a $100,000 winner in Oostburg. The company will get a $1,000 credit from the lottery for selling the winning ticket.

"They enjoy that," Ryan said of the store clerks when they sell a big winner. "It's very encouraging for the clerks, and everybody likes a little notoriety."

Until hitting the $50,000 jackpot, Murray said the most he'd ever won in a single game in all his years of playing the lottery was $50.

"When I got my check, I told my wife, 'Here, now I'm even,'" Murray said.

Related Links
	Lottery News & Stories
	Wisconsin Lottery Results
	Search Past Wisconsin Lottery Winning Numbers