Man won Virginia Lottery by picking unlucky numbers

Keith Boone of Chesapeake says he picked the winning numbers based on the fact they “hadn’t come up in a while” as winners for anyone else.

So, he basically picked the unlucky numbers: 9-17-23-32-40.

The $1 ticket paid off handsomely, with Boone claiming a $712,544 jackpot Cash 5 with EZ Match game on May 28, the Virginia Lottery reported in a news release on June 28.

Odds of winning in the game are 1 in 749,398, according to the lottery website.

He was equally low-key about winning. “I remained calm,” Boone said. “I didn’t jump up and down.”

It marks the second time Boone has won in the Virginia Lottery, officials said. He matched all five numbers “in the old Cash 5 game” in May 1999, and won $100,000, lottery officials said.