Mega Millions Ticket Buyer Struck by Lightning

A Kansas man who quipped to a pal that he was more likely to be struck by lightning than to buy a winning Mega Millions lottery ticket turned out to be exactly right. Unlucky Bill Isles, 48, was struck by a bolt of lightning in the backyard of his Wichita home within hours of buying three tickets in the Mega Millions game. "It threw me to the ground, quivering," he told Reuters. "It kind of scrambled my brain and gave me an irregular heartbeat." Isles, who's a volunteer weather spotter for the National Weather Service, managed to use his portable ham radio to signal for help. He was kept in a local hospital overnight, but apparently suffered no permanent effects. "But for the grace of God, I would have been dead," Isles said. "It was not a direct strike." (More Bill Isles stories.)