'This Is Life-Changing': Tinley Park Mechanic Wins $250K in Lottery

How's the old saying go? Close only counts in horseshoes in hand grenades.

Add the lottery to that list.

Tony Sefl, a diesel mechanic who lives in Tinley Park, only matched the first five out of six numbers in the May 10 drawing for the multi-state Mega Millions lottery. And while that wasn't enough to hit the $154 million jackpot, those digits—1, 19, 20, 39 and 49—earned him $250,000, according to an Illinois Lottery press release.

READ: 3 Friends Share $1M Payday With Winning Lottery Ticket

“I didn’t win the jackpot, but I sure feel like I did,” Sefl stated in the release. He purchased the Mega Millions ticket at Speedway gas station on Kedzie Avenue in Markham, the release continued.

Because no one picked all six numbers in the May 10 and the May 14 drawings, the current jackpot is $190 million. The next drawing is at 10 p.m. Friday, May 17.

Sefl found out he was a winner when his girlfriend's screams woke him up after she checked the numbers online, the release stated. The chances of hitting just five of the numbers is one in 3,904,701; the odds are one in 175,711,536 to hit all six, according to the Illinois Lottery.

The couple plans to buy a house with some of the prize money, the release stated.

“We can’t believe it, it still hasn’t really sunk in,” Sefl stated in the release. “This is life-changing for us.”

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