Playing Powerball can make your dream come true, like buying your dream fishing boat.
Some days end exactly how you expect them to.
You finish work. You grab gas. You head home thinking about dinner or traffic or what still needs to get done tomorrow. Nothing about the day hints that it’s going to be memorable.
And then there are days like Camilo Garza’s. His November day started and ended just like many others before it. But the following day, the Powerball app had other plans for Garza, to the tune of $50,000.
Camilo lives in Valparaiso and works as a maintenance supervisor at the University of Chicago. His routine is steady. Predictable in the best way. On his way home from work, he usually stops for gas and, while he’s there, picks up a couple Quick Pick Powerball tickets.
The morning after the drawing, Camilo took a break at work and did what a lot of people do now instead of squinting at tiny print. He pulled out his phone and scanned his tickets using the Hoosier Lottery app.
He wasn’t expecting much. Most of the time, the screen tells you exactly what you already assume. Not this time.Instead of a dollar amount or a “not a winner” message, the app told him he needed to contact the lottery to claim his prize.That’s it. No details. Just instructions. That’s the moment where your brain starts doing laps.
Camilo later said his first thought was, “Ooh, this is a good sign.” Not panic. Not disbelief. Just that quiet, internal pause where you realize the outcome might be different than usual.
Still, he didn’t know what he’d won.
It could have been a small prize. It could have been something bigger. All he knew was that the app wasn’t handling it automatically.
So he got in the car and drove to the Hoosier Lottery office in Mishawaka to find out.
That’s when the surprise finally had a number attached to it, and it turned out to be $50,000. It wasn’t the kind of Powerball win that makes national news or calls for champagne popping everywhere, but it didn’t need to be. It was the kind of win that makes life easier without turning everything upside down.
Camilo is nearing retirement. It's that phase of life where you start thinking less about schedules and to-dos and more about how you actually want to spend your days. He and his wife enjoy being outdoors. Fishing. Camping. Traveling in their RV when time allows.
So when asked what he plans to do with his Powerball cash winnings, the answer wasn’t flashy.
He wants to buy a fishing boat.That’s it. That’s the dream.
This is the part of winning Powerball that doesn’t always get attention. Not every win turns into a reinvention. Some wins simply remove friction. They make plans easier. They make hobbies more accessible. They turn “someday” into “now feels right.”
And honestly, that’s relatable.
Most people who play Powerball aren’t expecting to wake up billionaires. What they imagine instead is something smaller and more realistic. A little breathing room. More flexibility. The chance to finally say yes to something that once felt like a stretch without running the numbers twice.
For Camilo, that something is a fishing boat and more time spent on the water. It fits naturally into the life he and his wife already enjoy, one that revolves around being outdoors, slowing down, and making the most of the years ahead as retirement gets closer.
There’s something steady about how this win came together. A routine stop for gas. A ticket scanned on a phone during a workday break. One short drive that turned into news he’ll probably be sharing for the rest of his life.