Luckiest day of his life
Nieves Hernandez will remember Friday the 13th as the luckiest day of his life. After work that afternoon, and before his weekly trek to his mother’s home in Moses Lake, he drove over the Idaho border to the Expo Parkway Shell station at Stateline to buy a Powerball ticket. The jackpot had hit $77 million.
Hernandez, a single, 47-year-old electronics technician at Isothermal Systems Research, lives in Liberty Lake but spends every weekend caring for his wheelchair-bound brother in Moses Lake, giving his mother and sister respite from their care-giving responsibilities.
“It was 10:30 at night and I went onto the Internet to check the lottery numbers, and saw that I’d matched three numbers,” Hernandez said. “I’d chosen the Powerball number – 17 – and had the computer pick the others. I’d paid an extra dollar for the PowerPlay option, so it looked as though I’d doubled my winnings to $200.
“I went into the kitchen and told my mom I’d just won $200. She said, ‘Oh, great! A little bit here, a little bit there …’ Then I realized I’d matched four numbers – for $10,000. Doubled, that was $20,000! I started sweating … mainly because I realized I’d been one number from winning the jackpot of $77 million. I packed up and headed back to Liberty Lake, signed and copied my ticket, and hid the original one at home. I couldn’t sleep that first night.”
Narinder Sahota, a student at North Idaho College, is the manager of the Expo Shell station and convenience store where Hernandez had bought his ticket. The official press release from the Idaho Lottery reads, “Sahota made a copy of Hernandez’s winning ticket for the store’s records. That’s when she caught their calculation error and called Hernandez back. ‘I take care of all my customers,’ she explained, ‘so I called him and said the PowerPlay number was 5, not 2. You won $50,000!’ ” Narinder’s father has owned the Shell station for the past 21/2 years, and this is the first big winner since they bought the store. Their store receives $5,000 in store credit from the Idaho Lottery.
“Sahota thanked me for coming back and said that nobody ever returns to tell the store they won,” Hernandez said.
He adds, “When I found out I’d won $50,000, I couldn’t sleep again! It’s been a roller coaster ride since then. I was perfectly content when I thought I’d won $20,000. When I learned it was $50,000, my first thought was ‘Oh, great!’ At work I couldn’t focus. This wire here, that wire there. I couldn’t even think.”
After the initial excitement of appearing on TV and having photos taken with his gigantic fake check by the Lottery Commission, Hernandez decided to drive himself to Boise to collect his winnings rather than entrust the ticket to the mail system.
“I didn’t want to take the chance,” he said. “I could’ve flown, but I was a basket case. Driving relaxes me, but I needed someone to go with me.” He and his neighbor drove to Boise together, where there was a ceremony with yet more photos and interviews.
Asked what he plans to do with the money, Hernandez said, “Well, I still have to go to work every day. It’s not enough to retire on, but I got a piece of it. It’s all about being smart with it.
“I’ve thought about buying a new truck or a newer Harley, but then I thought, ‘Do I really need the new toys now?’ There’s nothing really wrong with my truck,” he said. “There’s no rush. For now, I’ve put the money in the bank.”