Decatur couple claims $2.75 million lottery jackpot

Wednesday, April 04, 2007 posted 11:31 AM EDT

DECATUR - Herbert Hinrichs, a retired Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. worker, was out for a walk.

Noticing that there was no big line at the neighborhood convenience store, he thought it was a good time to buy $3 worth of Lotto tickets.

That is something Hinrichs, 62, has been doing twice a week for 25 years.

The following morning, he discovered the winning numbers while reading the Herald & Review. When he walked into another room to tell his wife, she suspected something was going on.

"He was holding the ticket by the lottery numbers," she recalled. "Usually he takes them and throws them away."

Habitually, Herbert Hinrichs underlines the matching numbers on his tickets. A half-dozen times he has received payouts of $60 or less, for matching four numbers. It takes all six to hit the jackpot.

Sue Hinrichs spied the ticket in her husband's hand. When she saw that he only underlined one of the numbers, she thought he possessed a pitiful loser.

"I said, 'Oh, honey, numero uno,' " she recalled. "I looked at him. His eyes were welling up. Then I looked at the numbers: 2-12-16-27-41-52. So I started crying, and we just hugged and jumped around in the living room."

Lotto officials presented the couple with a ceremonial check for $2.75 million Tuesday at Prairie Pantry, 1645 W. Grand Ave. After state and federal taxes, they will receive $1,644,736.50.

The store, which will receive $27,500 for selling the winning ticket, also sold a winning Little Lotto ticket worth $100,000 on March 14.

Herbert Hinrichs told store owner Nilesh Patel Tuesday that he sold the winning ticket to him.

"I'm very happy," Patel said. "I like it that he's a regular customer; a regular customer won."

Herbert Hinrichs, who began collecting Social Security this year, in addition to his pension from 35 years at Firestone, said he has no big plans yet but might remodel their home.

Sue Hinrichs, his wife of 13 years, said she plans to get a paint job for her 1994 Thunderbird. "It's faded pretty bad," she said. "It has low mileage. It's still in relatively good shape, and I like it."

Has she had any dreams of what she would do with big money?

"No, because I never had any money," she said. "I've never dreamt big. I wasn't raised that way, and it isn't my nature."

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