$1.15 Million Winning Lottery Ticket Sold At Country Store In Small Illinois Town

The big winning lottery tickets won't always be in the big cities.

According to a release from the Illinois Lottery, someone won a lottery ticket for over $1 million was sold in a small town's convenience store over the weekend.

It was sold in Harvard, Illinois (which has a population of about 9,400 as of the 2020 census). It was a Lucky Day Lotto ticket that was sold at Chemung Country Store, at 24102 IL Route 173.

The winner hasn't been announced yet, so if you went by the store, you may need to check your ticket. It was for the February 21st drawing, with winning numbers 2-15-28-31-43.

Mark Smith, co-owner of Chemung Country Store, said in the release:

Our store has been a staple of the community for over 38 years. Our customer base is largely made up of loyal, local customers, so we’re all hoping the winner is one of our regulars.

The store will get 1% of the winning ticket, so in this case, it will be $11,500.

The winner and their plans for the big win are unknown at the moment. But as for how the store plans to use their money, Smith said it's going to be reinvested into the business with most of it going to "operations and improvements" but also "rewarding the staff".

The winner has one year from the draw date to claim their prize. Of course, if you have the (or any) winning ticket, immediately sign the back of it and keep it in a safe place. Nearly 74,000 winning tickets were sold for the drawing on Saturday night.