Biggest Mistake of Her Life Pays $10 Million

Bartender Sue Zera was at work serving the lunchtime crowd at Ollie’s Tavern on Friday, even though a $50 mistake in filling an order for lottery tickets had made her $10 million richer.

“We’ve got to serve lunch. I can’t say ‘I quit’ and leave nobody here to help,” said Zera, 47.

She was working Wednesday at the tavern in this town of 4,200, as she has done for seven years, when a customer ordered $50 worth of tickets for the Illinois State Lottery’s Lotto drawing today.

But Zera pressed the computer button for Wednesday’s Lotto 7 drawing, and ended up with 50 tickets the customer did not want.

It was her mistake and she had to pay for it, buying all 50 tickets instead of her usual one or two. Zera sold 20 of the tickets to friends, but was unhappy that she was stuck with 30 of them.

“Well, $30 is a lot of money to me, and I wasn’t happy about having to buy the tickets,” she said.

Everything changed Thursday morning, when tavern owner Ollie Hoock got a call from state lottery officials saying the winning ticket had been sold in his bar.

Zera quickly checked her 30 tickets.

“I broke down and cried,” she said. “I said ‘Ollie, come check these, I think I’ve got them.’ I was crying so hard I couldn’t see the numbers by then.

“I can’t believe it now. I don’t think it’s going to hit me until I see that check.”

Zera will receive about $500,000 a year for the next 20 years. After federal and state taxes, her portion should end up being about $387,500 annually, lottery officials said.

Zera, who plans to keep working at Ollie’s “for a while,” said she had not given much thought to spending the money, but did have a few ideas.

“One granddaughter will get the braces she needs,” she said. “And the other one--well, both of them can go to college if they want to.”

Zera said she also might travel.

“I come from a family of 10 children, so I’ll probably start at one end of the country and work my way around,” she said.