It started as a thank you. It ended in a half-million-dollar lottery prize for one unsuspecting New Jersey teacher.

Paul Corcoran won two separate $1 million Powerball jackpots in under a week, the Massachusetts Lottery announced.

More than 365,000 other Powerball tickets sold in the United States also won prizes ranging from $4 to $2 million, the lottery said.

A lottery player in Massachusetts claimed a $500,000 prize on Tuesday from a winning ticket they bought for $5. The prize was from “ $500,000 Cashword Corners ,” a $5 scratch ticket game released in January 2023. There’s just one $500,000 grand prize remaining to be claimed as of July 16.

A North Carolina man felt called to buy a lottery ticket last week and his intuition paid off in the form of a $1 million prize — of course, after taxes, that's not exactly how much he ended up taking home.

A new study revealed the U.S. states that have the highest chances of winning the Powerball — and sadly, none of the tri-state area was included in the top five.

A person, obviously, has to be very lucky to win the lottery. Not just a little bit lucky, but astronomically lucky, considering the odds of winning a