March 4

Clinton man sees $2M lottery win as ticket to new job

By Leslie Bridgers lbridgers@pressherald.com
Staff Writer

CANAAN — The story goes that when James Lovell picked up his wife from work last week he asked her if she wanted to kiss a millionaire.

click image to enlarge

James Lovell

Contributed photo

Lovell's wife, a school social worker obliged when he found out he'd won $2 million in Powerball. Then she told him they couldn't kiss any more in the schoolyard.

The 59-year-old truck driver from Clinton, who is unemployed, believes that his exposure from winning $2 million could be his ticket to a new job, according to the Maine State Lottery, which also made the kissing story public. His wife said in a press release last week that she intends to continue working.

Lovell has already ordered a new truck with a plow and started trusts for his granddaughters, according to Lottery officials. He hasn't talked to the press since the Feb. 24 drawing.

Tom Ward, owner of the Canaan Superette, said he got a call on Feb. 25 from a lottery official who asked if he'd heard the big news.

"We had sold a $30,000 scratch ticket about a week before," Ward said, so he assumed that's what the call was about.

Instead, he learned that he had sold the $2 million Powerball ticket.

Lovell, a regular at the Canaan Superette, stopped by the next day to check his tickets against the winning numbers from the previous weekend's drawing, Ward said.

The first five numbers matched: 2-5-31-39-41. That meant $1 million.

And Lovell had paid the extra dollar for the Power Play option, doubling his winnings.

The clerk, Traci Knowlton, double-checked the numbers and delivered the news.

"He was in shock," said Ward.

The truck Lovell ordered is a blue-jean blue V8 diesel, according to the lottery. His two granddaughters who now have trusts are 3 years old and six months old.

He has three children.

Ward expects to get a banner from the Maine State Lottery this week to put up at his store. The lottery pays bonuses to retailers that sell winning Powerball tickets.

"It was awesome. It was exciting," Ward said of selling the $2 million ticket.

Before the $30,000 scratch ticket last month -- Ward still doesn't know who bought that one -- the most a customer of the Canaan Superette had won was $5,000.

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