Driving Home the Jackpot: Couple Finds $100,000 Lottery Ticket in Their Car

A Connecticut couple was on a road trip to Virginia when they realized they had a $100,000 Powerball ticket tucked away in the sun visor of their car. 

Last month, Frank Laquitara and Debbie Long-Combs were headed to Old Dominion when they realized they had the six-figure ticket in their vehicle. 

Long-Combs noticed in an email during the trip that a winning Powerball ticket was issued in Connecticut on Aug. 24, which prompted her to check their numbers. Lo and behold, they had the winner. 

"Frank checked the tickets while I read the numbers off of the email — we matched four numbers, plus the Powerball," Long-Combs told the Connecticut Lottery. "We didn't believe it, even after I repeated the numbers twice and checked the ticket with the lottery's mobile app."

She said they kept their lips sealed and didn’t tell anyone for superstitious reasons. 

“We didn't tell anybody either, just in case we were wrong. We didn't want to jinx it!"

They kept the ticket safe and once they returned home, the couple verified they were the winners. 

"Once we got back to Connecticut, I went to a lottery retailer and scanned the ticket in a ticket checker,'' Laquitara said. "When it said it was a $100,000 winner, that's when I said, 'It's official. We won!'''

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