Ocean County couple hits impossible $4M streak — and a baby bonus

Do you play the lottery? Some folks play everything—scratch-offs, Powerball, Mega Millions, and all the odd little games in between.

For me and my wife, we keep it simple: Powerball and Mega Millions only, and only when the jackpot climbs past $800 million. The closer it gets to a billion, the more tickets we grab. And we have a little strategy—buy from the out-of-the-way mom-and-pop spots. No science behind it; it just feels luckier.

Secret lottery rituals and where Ocean County’s luckiest tickets come from

Well, that approach definitely worked for one Ocean County couple who bought their tickets at the Fischer Bay Exxon in Toms River.

Back in April, they hit a $1 million prize on the Ultimate Spectacular ticket. And then—because lightning apparently can strike twice—they recently nailed a $3 million payout in the Jackpot Millions game.

SEE ALSO: Lightning struck twice (or more!) at these lucky NJ lottery stores

A million, then three million — and a surprise baby on the way

This couple, who chose to stay anonymous, told the New Jersey Lottery that scratch-offs are just a fun little ritual after their two kids (ages 5 and 11) go to bed. They said they celebrated pretty hard after winning the first million. The wife even joked, “Maybe we celebrated a bit too much!” Because now baby number three is on the way.

How impossible were their wins? Here are the mind-bending odds

To put this in perspective: Winning one of the three top prizes in the $30 Jackpot Millions game is about a one-in-two-million shot.

For the Ultimate Spectacular ticket—another $30 game—the odds of hitting the top prize are a little over one in a million.

And hitting both? Lottery officials say the odds are roughly one in 2 trillion.

Two. Trillion.

That got me wondering: what else has odds anywhere near that crazy? After poking around online, here are a few things roughly in the “1 in 2 trillion” neighborhood:
• Winning the Powerball jackpot 30 times in a row
• Being struck by lightning every day for a year… and surviving each time
• Flipping a fair coin and getting heads 41 times in a row
• One specific person winning a 1-in-7-billion lottery 285 times in a row
• A random asteroid hitting the exact same square meter of Earth twice
• Shuffling a deck of cards and getting the exact same order twice, back-to-back

So yeah… if anyone needs me, I’ll be at every dusty little gas station I can find, buying scratch-offs like the universe is trying to tell me something—because clearly, anything can happen in Ocean County.