At the end of a long work week, Greg Ball stopped in his local Jacksons on Ustick Road in Meridian to pick up a few things before heading home on Valentine’s Day evening. He also picked up two $10 Idaho Lottery scratch tickets. One ticket was a non-winner. The second was a $20 winner.

Standing before the vending machine at the Jacksons, he decided to reinvest his winnings. He knew which game he wanted to play, Ultimate Bingo, but the machine featured two different bins with the game.

“Do I pick the ticket on the left, or the right? I thought about it and then went with a good feeling for the one on the left,” described Ball on his great decision. “I played it in the store, saw that I’d won $200,000 but couldn’t believe it. So, I had the store clerk check it. Sure enough, I had to bring the ticket to Boise.”

Ball immediately signed the ticket, took it home and locked it in his fireproof gun safe. And then he had to wait three days, through the long President’s Day weekend until first thing the following Tuesday morning to bring the ticket to Boise and claim his prize.

“I called my boss and told him I would be late today,” said Ball with a wide smile while he was claiming his prize before joking, “Maybe I’ll call in rich for the rest of the day.”

Ball plans to pay off his truck, his camper and a few other debts with his winnings. “If I don’t have those payments, plus what I have left over, I’ll be able to invest for the future and invest regularly.”

That’s a happy Valentine’s Day!