Couple thought they had won $4.3m lottery jackpot... but local newspaper gave wrong numbers



Mistake: Jim Sprague with 'wining' ticket and newspaper with draw

For a moment it seemed like their world had changed.

Jim and Dorothy Sprague believed that they had become millionaires overnight when matched six numbers in the Colorado Lottery.

They began celebrating and thinking about the new life of luxury they would be living with the $4.3m jackpot.

But their hopes were dashed a few hours later when they realised the local newspaper in which they checked their numbers had printed the wrong draw.

The couple had chosen their numbers for the draw last Saturday and checked them the following day in the Pueblo Chieftain newspaper.

To their surprise, the numbers on their tickets matched exactly the six that were in the local newspaper.

'I woke up and found out we were millionaires,' Jim Sprague told NBC station KOAA.

Mr Sprague, from Pueblo, Colorado, called his children and excitedly told them that he had won the jackpot in the Lotto and Cash 5 draw.

The family no doubt had started dreaming of their new life - and how to spend the millions they believed they had won.

We thought we'd won: Jim and Dorothy Sprague at home in Pueblo, Colorado laugh about matching their lottery numbers with the wrong ones in the newspaper

But a few hours later after checking the numbers again they were politely informed that they had actually matched the numbers from the Friday Matchplay draw which had been printed again by mistake.

'We had told my son and my daughter, and we were getting ready to tell our other kids, but we found the mistake, that it was wrong,' Sprague said.

Almost there: The incorrect lottery numbers that were published in the Pueblo Chieftain and right, the Sprague's ticket with the matching numbers



'It's a good thing that I didn't talk to too many people.'

The couple said that they are able to laugh about the mistake and will continue playing the lottery. Mr Sprague said that he hopes to find the right numbers 'one day'.

The newspaper published a correction saying the error was down to 'misinformation and an oversight.'