A Hudson Valley man has lots to celebrate this holiday season.

With so many terrible stories to report these days, it's refreshing to talk about something wonderful. Everyone dreams of winning the lottery, but according to statistics, we have a bigger chance of getting struck by lightning multiple times in our lives than actually winning a big jackpot.

That still doesn't deter many Hudson Valley residents from slapping down a few bucks each week in hopes of being that lucky person to score big. Well, that's just what happened to a Middletown man after he purchased a ticket for the Mega Millions.

Troy Dowe from Middletown has been revealed as one of four winners in the November 27 Mega Millions drawing. Dowe and three friends purchased the ticket at a convenience store in North Carolina, so now they will all split the $1 million prize. Dowe will share the prize, which will be divided equally between Nicollette Rhodes from New Jersey, Chad Payne from New York City and Lorraine Dowe from Concord, NC.

It's unclear if the ticket was a quick pick, or if the numbers held some significance to the group, but the winning combination of 4-10-27-35-58 printed on their ticket matched the balls that came up in the official drawing. After taxes, each of the winners will take home $176,875. While that's considerably less than a million bucks, it's a significant return on their $2 investment in the ticket.

And if you're wondering, the odds of picking all five winning numbers is 1 in 12.6 million. Now, that's pretty lucky.

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