James Sharrar is thanking his lucky stars the first lottery ticket distributor didn’t take debit cards.

The 49-year-old Parachute resident and sheet metal fabricator is a longtime Colorado Lottery player. Earlier this month, he went to Parachute’s newly built Love’s Travel Stop to purchase his next ticket but couldn’t because he was told they don’t accept debit card payments for the lottery.

Undeterred, Sharrar went across the road to the Thunder River Market, where they did in fact accept debit cards in exchange for Powerball tickets.

There, Sharrar purchased a $10 ticket for five numbers. He put the ticket in his pocket and left it there for a week. Finally, Sharrar checked his numbers for the July 8 drawing  — 2, 9, 43, 55, 57. And it was right then that the clerk began suspecting Sharrar had just won $1 million.

“He was like, ‘What time did you buy your ticket?'” Sharrar recalled the clerk’s response. “I’m shaking, trying to see the timestamp. He leans over and says, ‘You kind of look like the guy who bought the ticket,’ and he shows me a picture of me at the counter at the time in the morning the ticket was sold.”

Sharrar joined one other man, Michael “Hoogie” Hoogerwerf of Iowa, in claiming recent $1 million Powerball prizes. And when Sharrar retrieved the check from the lotto office in Grand Junction, he said it brought a tear to his eye.

“It’s a whirlwind,” Sharrar said of the win. “Everyone finding out that I won, they’re all congratulating me. It just hit the media, so everybody’s going crazy.”

Sharrar’s luck comes about two months after his basement was covered in three feet of flood water. In early May, a surging runoff caused Parachute Creek to rise to a record-breaking depth of 9.98 feet. The uncontrollable creek, which flows right by his house, also flooded his yard for two weeks.

Of course, there always seems to be exchanges of who pays for what between house owners and insurance companies in these types of situations. And by the end of the flooding, Sharrar was staring at about $16,000 in out-of-pocket expenses over a damaged water heater and furnace.

Meanwhile, he had already invested thousands of dollars in renovating his 1930s-built house.

“We went without hot water for about two weeks,” Sharrar said. “It was horrible. It was just horrible.” 

But this week has been pretty much the exact opposite. The guys at work have been razzing Sharrar, who’s worked for the same company for the past 19 years. Tom Rugaard, Sharrar’s colleague for the past 17 years and mayor of Parachute, said everyone is happy for him.

“I know he struggled, and people always go through struggles,” Rugaard said of Sharrar. “It’s just really cool to see something cool happen to somebody who is a good guy.” 

Rugaard also spoke of how his work buddies are joking about Sharrar’s win.

“They’ve got their hand out,” Rugaard said with a chuckle. “I started calling him my best friend.”

Sharrar is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico and moved to Colorado when he was 16. He has a wife and they raised a family in Parachute.

With the winnings, Sharrar said he’s going to take care of his water heater and furnace first then finish renovating his house. He also plans to speak to an investment firm.

And even though one may quit their day job after winning $1 million — and he said, yes, winning is like a “breath of fresh air” — he’s still going to continue to work as a sheet metal fabricator.

“In this day and age, a million dollars is not enough to quit, I’m sorry.” he said. “I can pay my bills and I can live comfortable, but it’s just not enough to retire on.”