Army service member wins $1.3 million in Pennsylvania Lottery

Pittsburgh, PA — Christopher Lehman, a newcomer to the Pittsburgh area who serves in the Army, received the warmest welcome he could have imagined. Lehman decided to check out the Pennsylvania Lottery after he and his wife moved from New Hampshire to Beaver County in May. “I was down to the last five dollars, and it was like a $30 or $20 thing with $5 spins. I was like, well, if I don't win, I don't win. And the last one just hit,” Lehman stated. The active duty service member of 25 years won $1.3 million on the Jackpot Spectacular online game. On Tuesday, a ceremony was held at the lottery's Pittsburgh office to celebrate the significant win. Lehman won the same day he signed up for the lottery online account. He said he wasn't too surprised when he won.
He stated, “I've been in the military for 25 years, so I've done a lot of different things, like deployments and everything else,” so there are clearly those really highs for that. “And so, the excitement level's more of just a ‘OK, cool,' because I didn't see the money yet. I didn't know if it was going to be real.”
“It went from the extremes of, ‘We should go buy these things, we should buy this or this, we should spend it on this' — none of it we were really going to do, but it was nice to think about it until the money hit, and then we had to be adults,” he said.
Lehman decided to be practical when spending the winnings. He paid off his house, bought a new truck, and put the rest into investments. “I believe that everyone ought to do that. “If you don't have kids, take care of your family and just grow your wealth,” he advised.