It's the dream of anyone who has ever bought a lottery ticket... to actually win! It doesn't really matter how much, just as long as you come out ahead... that feeling that you've beaten the odds. Well, it was even better than that for a group of friends from Ganado.

Bryan Hurt was all smiles Monday, as he joined 11 friends and family members at the Victoria Lottery Claim Office to pick up a $250,000 pay-out. A few days earlier, Hurt encouraged the winning group - which includes Ganado residents, Hurt, Shannon Ledwik, Heath and Brittany Bures, Blake Petrash, Clay Green, Carol Sulak, Josh Green, Jamie Bures, Kevin Petrash, Norman Hurt and James Hicks - to gamble $100 each for a chance of taking home a piece of the $656 million, Mega Millions lottery winnings. Hurt said he first asked his friend and co-worker Blake Petrash, of Hurt's Wastewater Management, if he would be interested in purchasing 100 "quick picks" tickets at Conner's Corner Store in Ganado. "Word just kinda spread after that, and others got in on it," Hurt, 33, told the Victoria Advocate. "We all knew each other."

Quick Picks were tickets that all six numbers of the Mega Millions lottery computer picked, and the winning numbers were announced at the drawing Friday night in Atlanta.

On Saturday, about 11 a.m., Petrash, 27, and Jamie Bures, 33, learned there was a winning ticket that was purchased at Conner's Corner Store, and they visited the store to see if they were holding a winning ticket. "After going through about 30 or 40 tickets, we saw it," Petrash said. "We bought 1,200 tickets from there, so I knew we had a pretty good chance." The group had indeed purchased the golden ticket - winning a combined total of $250,000, divided by 12 people - which means the individual cut amounted $20,833 per person before taxes.

What would you do with an extra $20,000?

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