A 29 year old man from Fall River, MA has been making headlines across the globe after accomplishing the nearly impossible after winning two separate lottery jackpots in only a couple hours apart back on Friday, July 25th, 2009 in the late evening and into the early hours of Saturday morning.

Phillip Brunelle purchased his lucky scratch tickets from the Tedeschi convenience store on East Main Street in Fall River, MA and after scratching the first of his tickets, a $20.00 lottery ticket named Billion Dollar Bonanza, the ticket revealed that Brunelle had won a thousand dollars. Brunelle told the local news, in what seemed to be his only media appearance, that within a couple hours after winning the thousand dollar jackpot, he returned to the same store around 3:00am and bought four $5.00 scratch tickets. “I figured that since I had already won a grand that it wouldn’t hurt my wallet any to try my luck on a different ticket” Brunelle told the local news.

Phillip Brunelle, now scratching off the four five dollar lottery tickets from Tedeschi’s, said that as he scratched them that the first three of the four tickets had been losers, and then finally on the last of the four scratch tickets, only one of the winning numbers matched one of his numbers. “This means that I won the prize amount for the number I matched” said Brunelle, and sure enough, as he scratched to reveal his winnings, the ticket read “1MIL” as his lottery prize, meaning one million dollars! “I never imagined that I would win this much. I thought that when I had only won on a single number that I had probably only won five or ten dollars” Brunelle told the media.

After Brunelle’s win, the local news, both television and print media, all flocked to Fall River, MA, a city about 45 minutes south of Boston and known for the home of Battleship Cove, and the home of Lizzie Borden, which remains one of the city’s highest profile unsolved crimes after Lizzie’s parents were killed in their Fall River home in 1892 with what was thought to be a hatchet used as the murder weapon, but more importantly the city is known for its unbelievably high unemployment rate.

The news quickly spread, and within a short time Brunelle’s lottery jackpot story had become big news on the national news wires, and even bigger news after the story aired on CNN World News on Sunday, July 27th, 2009. Many reporters have been stating in their stories that their attempts to reach Brunelle for further comment about his lucky wins have gone unsuccessful and that his home and office voicemails had been completely full and was not allowing any more incoming messages. It was official, in a city with a hurting economy and desperate for change, Brunelle had become an overnight sensation and filled other Fall River residents with hope that they too may have a chance at the luck that happened to Brunelle.

Phillip Brunelle, who is a self employed professional photographer, told the local news that with his winnings he had intended to open up a photography studio or two in the local area to meet and expand upon his growing demand for photography services. Brunelle also said that he planned to assist his mother in any way that he can, including getting her a new car. Brunelle’s mother, Linda Daggett, 50, of Brockton, MA is physically disabled with cerebral palsy and according to Brunelle has not had an easy time when it comes to her finances and getting the extra things needed in life since she is on a fixed income from social security for her disability.

Phillip Brunelle told the media that he wanted his mother, Linda Daggett, to “maintain her dignity in every way possible, and concentrate less on her disability, and instead focus more on the things that she will now be able to do with my help.” This statement to the media pulled on the heart strings of many and deepened the meaning behind the lottery story.

The local stores in Fall River, particularly the Tedeschi’s where the first of the tickets were purchased awarding Brunelle two different jackpots, had made statements to the associated press that the news has been in the area and calling them for weeks now attempting to get updates on any word of Phillip Brunelle, his winnings, and when he intended to cash in on his big win. One of the store clerks, who wishes to remain unnamed, said to the Associated Press “My manager hates this guy, [Brunelle], but not because of anything personal, but because the news keeps calling here every 5 minutes, showing up here at the store, and one time would not even let me pass them because they were demanding a statement and it made me late for my shift by a few minutes.”

Just when the area thought that the media attention had been settling down on Brunelle, to many people’s surprise, he is back in the headlines again for yet another lottery jackpot win! This is the third lottery jackpot for Brunelle in three weeks. While the prize amounts are certainly adding up for Brunelle, the question that remains is what the odds are of a single person winning on three lottery jackpots in less than three weeks time? Some say greater than one in a million just based on Brunelle’s two past lottery wins, but now with his third win on a lottery jackpot, who knows what those odds are now.

It was yesterday, Friday, August 14th, 2009 when Phillip Brunelle had stopped at a local convenience store, Cloverdale Farm, located at 1892 South Main Street in Fall River, MA and once again tried his luck with the purchase of four more five dollar lottery scratch tickets. When Brunelle scratched his tickets, to his surprise and to the surprise of millions of people who have tuned into his story since it first broke in the media, Brunelle had once again defied all odds when his ticket had a single winning number match and revealed yet again another lottery jackpot.

This time around the amount of the jackpot was not as high as others that Brunelle had won on in the recent past, however it was still another thousand dollar prize and making it his third jackpot win in less than three weeks.

Patrick Fitzgerald, 37, from Fall River, MA was an eye witness to the latest jackpot win for Phillip Brunelle at the Cloverdale Farm convenience store around 12:00pm on August 14, 2009. “I had already recognized him [Brunelle] from all of the news attention recently on his other lottery wins, and when he stood in line before me, I could not believe my eyes or ears when I heard that he was validating another big prize” said Fitzgerald. “I was almost in disbelief when the clerk scanned the ticket and printed out a claim form from the lottery machine and told the guy [Brunelle] that he has to go to the lottery headquarters in New Bedford to cash his ticket. I knew it had to be another jackpot if he had to go to the lottery building.”

Phillip Brunelle was then heard speaking with the clerk at the Cloverdale Farm convenience store, and witness Patrick Fitzgerald said that Brunelle had mentioned to the clerk that today [August 14th, 2009] was his 30th birthday, and now he can celebrate it with another lottery jackpot. “Now not only has he won on three lottery jackpots, that we know about, but of all days to win, on his 30th birthday… it’s just amazing to me.” Fitzgerald told the Associated Press.

Fitzgerald also told the Associated Press that once Brunelle had left the store, most likely on his way to the lottery office in New Bedford, MA to cash in on his latest jackpots, that the customers had continued to speak of him and his winnings with the convenience store clerk and amongst one another. “People are wondering about the million dollar ticket and if he cashed it yet, and if he hasn’t, they are wondering why, and I guess I am curious to know too” said Fitzgerald. “The man working in the store has told people that in the past week that Brunelle has cashed in on ‘many lottery wins’ other than these jackpots, and that they probably totaled at least another three thousand dollars or more.” Fitzgerald continued to say “So I asked what he puts into the lottery to begin with and if he is just evening out with his money back on the wins, but the man who works at the store said that yesterday alone he bought a variety of tickets, about 25 in total ranging from at least five dollar scratch tickets, but many were also twenty dollar scratch tickets, and of the tickets that he bought and scratched in the store, he won on twenty of them, only losing on five of them, and four of the twenty different winning lottery tickets gave him $500.00 each, and the others ranged from five dollars to a hundred dollars in winnings.” Fitzgerald continued to explain.

The owner and manager of the Cloverdale Farm convenience store located on 1892 South Main St. in Fall River, MA confirmed Fitzgerald’s statement to the associated press today after a brief telephone conversation placed to the store. “He [Brunelle] is a regular customer for us here, and if we were open later than 11:00pm he would no had [would not have] won the other two jackpots from the other store [Tedeschi's] because he is here all the time shopping and sometimes buys some scratch tickets and it is always the same thing, four number 7’s (which are $5.00 scratch tickets named “Million Dollar Spin”) and he also gets one Billion Dollar Bonanza (a $20.00 lottery scratch ticket), and it’s always the same thing that he gets.” The owner of Cloverdale Farm convenience store told the Associated Press.

The news about the newest jackpot win of Phillip Brunelle was also confirmed with the store’s owner, who validated the ticket for Brunelle at the store, just as witness Patrick Fitzgerald told the Associated Press in an exclusive interview yesterday. The lottery win was also confirmed through a Massachusetts Lottery official at the New Bedford, MA lottery headquarters where Phillip Brunelle was referred to as “the recipient multiple thousand dollar jackpots” as well as an “unclaimed million dollar prize”, which to this date has not been cashed.

It was said that in order for Brunelle to cash in on his million dollar win, he would have to do so in the Braintree, MA lottery office since the New Bedford, MA location only cashes tickets with winnings less than $50,000.00. Lottery officials could not comment as to why Brunelle has yet to claim the largest of his winnings and simply told the Associated Press that once he does they will prepare a press release which will be available on the official MA lottery website. Lottery officials also said that any explanations as to the wait on Brunelle cashing the ticket would have to come from his own words to the media if he wishes to comment on the subject.

On a side note, while cashing in on his “birthday jackpot” at the lottery office in New Bedford, MA, Phillip Brunelle used the ’self serve lottery vending machine’ within the lottery office waiting area. He bought another Billion Dollar Bonanza lottery ticket for a knock out $20.00 price at the chance of possibly winning much more, and according to an employee of the New Bedford lottery office, his ticket revealed a “5X” symbol where one of his matching numbers should be, which means it is an instant winner and that he wins five times the amount shown under this symbol, which turned out to be yet again another $500.00 winner just as the owner of Cloverdale Farm convenience store said that he won $500.00 on four separate lottery tickets from their store alone. Along with other prize amounts Brunelle’s lottery winnings for that day came to a whopping $2,760.00 when he only spent ” a couple hundred” according to the store owner. And now as of today, he reveals yet again more lottery winnings with a thousand dollar jackpot and a $500.00 winner while waiting for his check in the lottery office waiting room yesterday.

Lottery officials explained that as long as a winning scratch ticket is $500.00 or less that it does not matter how many $500.00 tickets one person wins or cashes in, they can do this anywhere and they don’t have to report it to the lottery or pay taxes on the winnings. It is believed by the owner of the convenience store which Brunelle frequents that in addition to his now three jackpot winning lottery tickets, that he has won an additional $5,000.00 in smaller amounts including at least five $500.00 tickets that we now know of, and this has just been since the day he won the two lottery jackpots bringing his lottery winnings to date upwards of close to $10,000.00 in addition to his already $1,001,000.00 lottery winnings in the past few weeks alone. “He is a lucky man” said the assistant manager of the Cloverdale Farm convenience store. “He just keeps winning, and winning! And then yesterday on twenty different tickets for a lot of money. I did not even have enough [money] to cash all of them, and now today he won on a jackpot again, he is so really lucky” the assistant manager continued to explain.

Friday nights Mega Millions game has a jackpot of $146,000,000.00 and Phillip Brunelle was front and center buying into ‘many tickets’ for a chance at this jackpot too, and if he manages to pull this one off, this reporter too will be lost for words! “I don’t know how much, but he bought many of the quick picks for the game tonight, and I think he will win, it will be a miracle, but he keeps winning, so why not this one be a big winner too” said the owner of the Cloverdale Farm convenience store about the possibility of Brunelle holding the winning ticket of a multi-million dollar jackpot for the Mega Millions lottery game.

The Associated Press was miraculously able to reach Brunelle through his office phone number and his only statement was the following, “I have been quite lucky lately, and on somewhat of a winning streak I guess, but when it comes to my winnings and people wondering when I will cash it and why I am waiting, I really think that is a matter of my personal information, and since I am not a public figure, in the sense of a politician or something, the amount of money that I am worth and what I do with it should only be my business and not exposed for the world to know what I have in the bank and how I choose to manage my finances.”

Brunelle then went on to say “I can understand that people are curious and possibly excited at the idea of my lottery winnings, and that is absolutely fine with me, and I will even comment on it when its appropriate, but as to personal questions about my finances, and also in regard to people casting doubt on my lottery winnings… I suppose that they are entitled to their own opinions of me and of the situation, but I am not going to try to explain or justify myself to satisfy the curiosity of others when it comes to my money.” He went on to say that he is working with an attorney and also a financial group known as Peachtree Financial regarding his larger lottery win. Peachtree Financial is known for settling lottery wins for a large lump sum rather than payments over a period of time. A representative at Peachtree Financial confirmed that Brunelle is in fact a client of theirs, but as to any of the details or information about his involvement with the financial group, they are unable to comment because of the company policies and also the contract that they have in place with Brunelle.

While Phillip Brunelle celebrates both his 30th birthday, and also his “birthday jackpot” making it his third known large jackpot win in less than three weeks, along with several other thousands of dollars in winnings of smaller accumulative amounts, he will just remain another legend of sorts and will continue to be a person of mystery in Fall River, MA, just as the Lizzie Borden case has remained since 1892. One last side note, I have already mentioned the Fall River mystery of Lizzie Borden which has remained unsolved and one of the city’s highlights since 1892, but did anyone catch the address of the convenience store in Fall River where Phillip Brunelle has been on a lottery jackpot winning streak? Yeah, you guessed it… 1892 (south main street). Maybe these numbers are tied in to what makes up the mysteries of this city, and maybe Brunelle should try playing these numbers in the lottery tonight!

Staff Reporter

The Associated Press