Sherill and Ernie Johnson

FORT WAYNE — A quick stop at a gas station changed the lives of a Fort Wayne couple forever. On April 2, Sherill Johnson sent her husband, Ernie, out to grab something for dinner. Before heading home, he stopped at the Get to Go gas station at 3505 Wayne Trace to purchase a Hoosier Lottery Scratch-off.

Johnson scratched the $120,000 Cash Spectacular ticket in the parking lot and suddenly lost his appetite. The lottery ticket ended up being worth $1 million dollars.

“I turned around and went back home,” Johnson said. “Winning a million dollars delayed our appetite.”

Sherill thought it was a joke.

“It was so close to April Fool’s Day that I didn’t believe him at first,” Sherill said.

When the Johnson’s shared the good news with the family the next day, their daughter who is expecting, actually fainted.

“She was OK. We were at my grandchild’s birthday party, and it was at a firehouse in a room you can use for public events, so the paramedics were right there,” said Ernie. “She was fine within a couple of minutes, so it’s all good now,”

Ernie is a retired Navistar engineer and Sherill is retired social worker. The Johnsons have two grown daughters and two grandchildren with a third on the way. They are planning to give money their church and work with a financial advisor to invest the rest of their winnings.

Source: WANE