Illinois mother wins $1.4 million lottery by using kids’ birthdays as numbers

An Illinois mother has won a $1.4 million lottery jackpot by using her kids’ birthdays as numbers, state lottery officials say. 

The Wednesday, March 6 Lucky Day Lotto winner, identified by the Illinois Lottery only as “Lucky Mom,” found out she won when her baby woke up crying in the middle of the night.  

“My baby woke up crying, and after tucking them back into bed, I had trouble falling back asleep. So to pass the time, I opened the lottery app on my phone, and I couldn’t believe it when it showed that I had just won $1.4 million! – absolutely wackadoodle,” she told Illinois Lottery. 

“I’ve played Lucky Day Lotto here and there, and when I do, I use my kids’ birthdays as my lucky numbers,” she added. “I have the best job in the world: I’m a stay at home mom, and I already feel very lucky and blessed for where I’m at in life – but today, the word ‘lucky’ took on a whole new meaning.” 

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“After I won, I asked my husband — ‘Do you want to know which kid’s birthday helped us win the jackpot?’,” she also was quoted as saying. 

Illinois Lottery says the winning numbers in the $1.4 million jackpot prize drawing were 6, 8, 16, 17 and 20. 

Drawings for the game, which is only available in Illinois, are held two times a day. 

“Already this month, nearly 550,000 winning Lucky Day Lotto tickets have been sold, with total prizes amounting to more than $3 million for Illinois Lottery players,” Illinois Lottery said in a statement. 

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A Virginia woman also recently became a millionaire after she discovered a weeks-old lottery ticket sitting inside her nightstand. 

In that case, Portsmouth resident Melena Hill purchased a Mega Millions lottery ticket ahead of the Jan. 9 drawing at the Murphy USA gas station in Suffolk, according to a press release from the Virginia Lottery.  

Hill told lottery officials that she was in extreme shock after she found out that her five-week-old lottery ticket was worth millions. 

FOX Business’ Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.