Tierra Amarilla Man Wins $100,000 New Mexico Lottery Prize

11/09/2011

Buys Game at Store that Sold Jackpot-Winning Powerball® Ticket in 2007

ALBUQUERQUE – Kids will be kids.

When Patrick Hinds of Tierra Amarilla found $100,000 playing a New Mexico Lottery Scratcher, his son, 12, and daughter, 10, were quick with a plan to spend the prize.

“They said, ‘Dad, we can get a maid to clean our bedrooms,’” Hinds said.

Fat chance.

Patrick Hinds wins Powerball ticket

Above: pictured is Patrick Hinds, winner of the Powerball ticket

Hinds told his children to finish their chores. Then the prizewinner called his wife at work to tell her what he had revealed playing the “Platinum Card” Scratcher.

“She didn’t believe me,” he told lottery officials in Albuquerque Tuesday. “I’m always playing pranks on her.”

Hinds, an electrician and hunting guide, bought a soda and two $10 “Platinum Card” Scratchers after leaving work Friday. He found the $100,000 prize on the first ticket. And the second ticket?

“I forgot about it,” he said.

Hinds said he plans to use the prize to pay off a car loan and other smaller bills.

The lucky ticket came from Giant Sundial No. 5 located at Highway 84-64 in Chama. In May 2007, the same store sold a jackpot-winning Powerball ticket worth $62.8 million to Los Ojos resident Felipe Piña.

Legislative Lottery Scholarships

The sale of lottery games benefits an in-state college tuition program. Since 1996, the New Mexico Lottery has raised $497 million for education and more than 75,000 students have attended college on Legislative Lottery Scholarships.

As of the Spring 2010 semester, more than 1,820 students from Rio Arriba County have received approximately $7.2 million in Legislative Lottery Scholarships.

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