Chinle couple claims $1 million jackpot

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - An Arizona couple has claimed a $1 million Powerball prize from New Mexico.

Patrick and Sharon Yazzie of Chinle purchased the winning ticket for the March 31 drawing at Speedys in Black Hat west of Gallup.

They didn’t discover the $1 million prize until May 15 when Sharon Yazzie retrieved old tickets to check against winning numbers posted at the lottery’s website. The discovery brought tears to her eyes.

“I couldn’t see anything,” she recalled in a statement released by the New Mexico Lottery. “I couldn’t believe it.”

“First there’s disbelief,” Patrick Yazzie added. “Then you start thinking about all the good things you can do for your family.”

The Yazzies waited another 10 days to claim their prize, telling only one other person about their good fortune.

“I just had to tell somebody,” Patrick Yazzie said. “So I called my sister and I said, ‘You’re talking to a millionaire.’”

The couple plans to use their prize money to pay bills, build a home and make investments.