Sometimes life throws you a curveball that feels like the start of a tragedy… and then it turns out to be a million-dollar plot twist instead.

That’s exactly what happened in Boise, Idaho, when Corey Dryden picked up the phone, spoke in a tone heavy enough to make his wife brace for bad news, and then told her the most unintentionally dramatic sentence of his life: he had just won $1 million in the lottery.

It all started on an ordinary Friday night. Corey was out grabbing a few groceries before the Boise State game — nothing heroic, nothing enlightening — just regular life. But he had this feeling. The kind of gut-level nudge we all get from time to time and usually ignore. He had a $50 winning ticket from before, and instead of pocketing the comfort, he traded it in for another shot.

A single $50 “$1,000,000 Cash” scratch-off from Albertsons. The first one he had ever bought there. And for reasons none of us ever fully understand, that’s the one that changed everything.

He walked back to his car, scratched the ticket, scanned it on the lottery app, and suddenly found himself staring at the game’s final top prize. One million dollars. Just like that.

And because human beings are not trained for moments like these, he called his wife and delivered the news with the emotional weight of a Shakespearean monologue. She thought someone had died. Instead, the universe had simply decided to hand her family a financial plot twist.

Corey claimed his prize on Monday and told officials he plans to invest the money for his family’s future — a calm, rational response, considering that most of us can barely think straight after winning £20 on a scratch card.

Since he snagged the last available top prize, the Idaho Lottery shut down the game entirely. Retailers are pulling the remaining tickets, and anyone who still has one has until June 6, 2026, to claim whatever is left.

And the Albertsons that sold the winning ticket? They’re walking away with a tidy $20,000 bonus, because apparently everyone gets a little piece of the miracle.

Sometimes the universe whispers. Sometimes it nudges. And sometimes it hands you groceries, a football game, and a million-dollar surprise — all in the same night.