General Electric retiree wins big with '$1,000 a Week For Life' scratch-off ticket

PHOTOGRAPHER: Gazette Staff Report

Share on Facebook

Save

A bored husband in a grocery store won more than $650,000, after taxes, for buying a scratch-off lottery ticket.

Robert Dibble, 71, a General Electric retiree, bought three “Win $1,000 a Week For Life” tickets while his wife shopped on Sept. 10. One of them was a winner.

“I just kind of stared at the ticket in disbelief,” Dibble said in a press release from state lottery officials. “When my wife came back from buying the groceries, I couldn’t explain to her what we had just won. I was literally speechless.”

Dibble used to buy the tickets regularly, but stopped about nine years ago, he said, explaining that he only bought the tickets this time out of boredom.

He plans to spend the money on traveling with his family, especially his two grandchildren.

“We like to travel and Italy has always been on our list of destinations. Now we’ll be able to check that one off,” he said.

He will get $34,336 a year, after taxes, for the next 19 years. If he’s still alive, he will get $7,924 for his 20th year, and then continue getting $34,336 checks every year for the rest of his life.