NEWS

Lottery pays off for Sheboygan man after 26 years

Kali Thiel
Sheboygan Press Media
  • Sheboygan man played lottery for 26 years
  • Will help daughter with college

He's been buying lottery tickets every day for 26 years, and last week it finally paid off in a big way.

Sheboygan resident Dave Resnick, 52, is a $1 million Wisconsin Lottery Powerball ticket winner. After taxes, he'll keep $673,500 of the prize money.

"I kept saying, 'One of these days I'm going to get lucky,'" Resnick said at a press conference Monday. "And I got lucky."

Monday's press conference was held at the Q Mart on Weeden Creek Road, the location where Resnick purchased his winning ticket.

Full of nervous energy and laughter, Resnick was all smiles as he received his symbolic $1 million check from Wisconsin Lottery Director Mike Edmonds and answered questions for the media.

"My armpits felt like Niagara Falls," Resnick said after the conference. "Haven't felt this nervous probably since (my wife) was having a baby."

Q Mart receives a $20,000 commission for selling the winning ticket.

Resnick is the second this month in Sheboygan County to win the $1 million Powerball, and both tickets were purchased at a Q Mart. Joe Powers, of Sheboygan, purchased his ticket at a Q Mart in Kohler.

"This is the second check of these that we've presented to Q Mart," Edmonds said Monday. "If I'm back here in another two weeks, you're going to have to change your store name to 'Lucky Mart.'"

On the day he found out he won, Resnick said he checked his ticket as soon as he purchased it, per his usual routine. The moment he realized he had matched five of the numbers in Wednesday's drawing, he leaned his head against the register in shock.

"I was so excited I couldn't even breathe," Resnick said. "I said, 'I've got to lean up against something before I faint.'"

Resnick said he plans to put most of the money into savings. He also plans to help his daughter, a recent South High School graduate, through college and take a trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota.

He declined to disclose his place of employment, but he said he'll continue to work.

He also will continue to play the lottery, he said.

"People asked me that already and I said, 'Why not? Everybody else does.'"

— Reach Kali Thiel at 920-453-5134