Virginia Beach man wins $1 million Powerball prize! Just one number from winning historic $1.5 billion jackpot

Teofilo Mesina says he hadn’t really been buying tickets for every Powerball drawing during the historic run that took the game to a record-shattering $1.5 billion.

“I would buy just sometimes,” he said. “I played a mix of my own numbers, and some computer pick numbers.”

Lucky for him, Mr. Mesina did buy some tickets for the Wednesday, January 13, drawing. It was a ticket with his own personal numbers that was worth the game’s second-highest prize of $1 million. Mesina purchased the ticket at 7-11, 2093 Lynnhaven Parkway in Virginia Beach.

Though he didn’t watch the drawing live, he did check the numbers later that night. He says he looked, then looked again…then looked again.

“I finally called my son when I realized the numbers matched,” he said. “The next day, I talked to a financial advisor so I can decide how to handle my winnings. I wanted to win the whole thing, but I’m lucky because I won a million!”

The winning numbers for that drawing were 04-08-19-27-34, and the Powerball number was 10. His ticket was one of 81 nationwide to win the $1 million prize, and one of two in Virginia.

Powerball drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays. They are broadcast on TV stations across Virginia and live on www.valottery.com. The cut-off time to buy a ticket is 10:00 p.m. on the night of the drawing.

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