'Lucky' Hess Station Sells 3 Winning Powerball Tickets

NORTH WHITEHALL, PA -- What are the chances Wednesday's winning $60 million Powerball ticket will have been sold at the Hess station on Route 309 in Orefield?

About the same infinitesimal odds the same Hess gas station had in selling three winning Pennsylvania lottery tickets with huge jackpots in the last three months.

The long odds not only didn't deter customers from buying lottery tickets, the rash of oddball wins actually attracted customers, such as Dawayne Brown, 23, of Orefield.

"This is the first time I've bought a Powerball ticket," said Brown, who rushed out to buy a ticket after a co-worker at KidsPeace told him someone bought a lottery ticket worth $2 million at the lucky Hess station.

Eric Thomson, 25, of Washington Township, who stopped at Hess's to fill up his gas tank, did the same thing after he learned about the recent run on big jackpot wins at the station.

The long odds of winning don't faze him, said Thomson, who usually buys "scratch-off" lottery tickets at the Hess station.

Whatever the reason, he said, "it's beating the odds now."

Stephen Corey, 51, of Orefield, bought two Powerball tickets at Hess's after learning about the recent wins. He let the store pick random numbers on one of his tickets, the other were "numbers I had in a dream three years ago."