
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 28, 1990                   TAG: 9007280287
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Short

LOTTERY LUCK FLASHED DOWN WITH THUNDER

In a bizarre twist of fate - and a flash of lightning - a Moultrie, Ga., gas station attendant and his wife, who won half the $7.36 million Florida Lotto jackpot on Monday, found out Thursday they had won the other half, too.

Handy Flemming and his wife, Jeanette, claimed half the prize Monday because lottery computers showed two winning tickets.

But Lottery Secretary Rebecca Paul announced Thursday that the other ticket was conjured up with the help of Mother Nature and existed only on computer.

Flemming, 55, bought his lottery tickets Saturday during an electrical storm.

A store clerk entered his number, which was recorded at the state's main lottery computer at 2:47 p.m. Then lightning struck the store and the power went out. The ticket did not print. When the power came back on, the clerk re-entered the number, then handed Flemming his ticket.

The lottery office computer listed two tickets bought three minutes apart.

After a three-day investigation, lottery officials determined there was only one.

At a news conference, Fleming said he didn't think he would keep his job at a Chevron gas station.

The odds of winning the lottery are 1 in 13.9 million.

The odds of lightning striking while you buy the winning ticket, said Paul, are 1 in 8.4 trillion.

by CNB