Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
PNT Senior Writer
Less than a year after an Elida resident won $1.1 million in the New Mexico Lottery, his son and daughter have claimed their own lottery prize this week.
Monica Baca of Portales and Brantley King of Elida, children of lottery winner Aurbra King of Elida, won a $10,000 Powerball prize with a ticket they bought together at Allsup’s in Elida — the same place their father bought his winning ticket.
“It’s exciting and neat that we won and that it happened to the family again,” Baca said.
The siblings were one number away from winning the jackpot in the June 16 Powerball drawing, according to a news release from the New Mexico Lottery Commission.
Baca and her brother play the same way as their father, picking their own numbers and having Brantley King’s wife, Jennifer, check the tickets for wins, Baca said.
She normally checks the numbers herself as well, but was busy and didn’t know about the win until her brother called last week.
Baca said she was shocked and thought it was strange that the same family won again.
Lottery spokeswoman Linda Hamlin said she didn’t realize the new winners were related to Aurbra King until she recognized them when they came to claim their prize Wednesday at the lottery office in Albuquerque.
“It’s just one of those examples of playing lottery games,” she said. “You just never know where those prizes are going to strike.”
The siblings split their winnings and took home a little more than $3,000 each after taxes.
Baca said her share would go to her daughter’s wedding in August, bills and her four granddaughters. She said she thought Brantley King would also pay bills but had no big plans.
Since Aurbra King’s win, Baca said, he and his wife have made improvements on their house and helped their children and grandchildren.
Baca and her brother play the lottery individually and started playing together a couple of years ago, she said. They thought it would be neat if they played together and won.
The siblings picked their Powerball numbers together a few years ago.
“We just picked some random numbers,” she said.
Baca said she keeps playing the lottery because she might win a big prize again someday and she likes to support the Lottery Scholarship.
