$5 Ticket Beats the Odds: Couple Win $107 Million

On Thursday morning, Tony and Linda Calliea’s checking account was overdrawn. By afternoon, the Callieas were multimillionaires.

The couple stepped forward to claim the $107-million jackpot in Tuesday’s multi-state Big Game drawing.

The Callieas’ $5 ticket, bought at Mama’s Pizzeria and Party Store in Chesterfield Township, matched all six numbers.

“I’m stunned. I’ve been shaking since yesterday,” Tony Calliea said at Michigan lottery headquarters. “I haven’t eaten. I haven’t slept.”

The Callieas play the Big Game regularly but had never won anything except “the plush football from the Doritos bag,” Linda Calliea joked.

She gripped her husband’s hand Thursday as she signed lottery documents. “Don’t let go of me,” she said.

The Callieas chose the lump sum option, which left them with $57.7 million before taxes.

Tony Calliea, 39, is a computer technician. Linda Calliea described herself as a “domestic engineer.” They have been married 16 years and have two children, ages 16 and 12.

Tony Calliea took a vacation day to go to the lottery headquarters and hasn’t quit his job--yet. “I haven’t really thought about it. It happened so fast,” he said.

Their eyes welling with tears, the couple said they have no idea how they will spend the money. Their friends shouted “Maui!” and told Calliea that he ought to buy a new truck. Linda Calliea had another idea.

“My nieces and nephews and friends’ children are going to go to college,” she said.

The largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history was the Big Game’s $363 million, split in May between a Michigan and an Illinois couple. The biggest individual win was a $197-million Big Game prize won by a Massachusetts woman in 1999.

Big Game tickets are sold in Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Virginia.

The odds of getting all six winning numbers are 1 in 76 million.