It was two days before Christmas in 2010 and Eddie Tipton had a $16.5 million lottery winner in his pocket.

Sporting a hooded jacket, the stocky 47-year-old approached a silver-haired clerk at the counter of an Iowa-based Quik Trip market at around 3:30 p.m., stacking on the counter $3.17 worth of hot dogs, a fountain soda and two tickets.

But Tipton didn’t need Lady Luck. The Quik Trip purchase was phase two of a crafty plan to take the 29 million-to-1 odds out of the lottery equation.