How 17 Siblings Scored a $20 Million Jackpot

Can you plan to win the lottery?

Judging from the amazing story of the Endreson family's $20.1 million bonanza in the New Jersey Lottery, the answer just might be yes.

The family's lottery pool - originally conceived by matriarch Flossie Endreson, who died in 2004 at the age of 85 - finally paid off big when her 17 surviving children won the Pick-6 Lotto on a quick-pick game board purchased for $1 at a 7-Eleven in Fork River, N.J.

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Flossie, the story goes, is said to have had a formula for splitting any lottery winnings among the family. When she died in 2004 at the age of 85, her children gathered and collected funds to cover her funeral expenses. After daughter Sigrid Endreson realized funds were left over, she and her siblings decided to use the money to start a new lottery pool in their mother's honor.

The winnings "couldn't have come at a better time," Marie McHenry, a family spokeswoman, told reporters. Four of the siblings, who range in age from 53 to 76, lost their homes during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

According to the New Jersey Lottery, the family opted to take the jackpot as a lump-sum payment of $14 million - or about $10 million after taxes.

Photo: New Jersey Lottery

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