Tayeb Souami, The Man who Returned Orange Juice and Won $315M

It was a busy and costly month for Tayeb Souami when his life changed forever.

In May 2018, Tayeb Souami went to return some orange juice, decided to play the Powerball lottery, and became the winner of the $315 million jackpot.

**Tayeb Souami photographed with his $315 jackpot winnings. Image via North Jersey.**

Souami’s story of overnight wealth is both heartwarming and incredible. A perfect sequence of circumstances led to the father being the sole winner of the New Jersey Powerball jackpot.

Here, we will discuss what actions led to Tayeb Souami purchasing his winning ticket, and how the money would turn his world upside down in the best possible way.

How Does Powerball Work?

Lotteries in the United States take a lot of different forms. Powerball is one of the newer iterations of lottery games, having been established in April 1992.

Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. New Jersey wouldn’t join the ranks of the Powerball states until 2010.

There are 69 white balls and 26 red Powerballs in the game. To play Powerball, the player must make a bet–the minimum bet is $2.

Players will then choose five numbers from the white balls and one from the red Powerballs on their ticket. The order of the numbers does not matter since the numbers are displayed in ascending order.

When the drawing occurs, two machines are used–one for the white balls and one for the red Powerballs. Five white balls will be picked from the first machine and one red Powerball from the second.

Not all numbers have to match for a ticket to be considered a winner. All that’s needed to win is three matching white balls or a single red Powerball.

On March 13, 2010, Sandra McNeil of Morristown would be the first Powerball winner in the state of New Jersey. Despite New Jersey’s late adoption of Powerball, McNeil’s win would make New Jersey the first state to sell winning tickets for both Powerball and Mega Millions.

Tayeb Souami’s Early Life And Background

Before settling happily in Little Ferry, New Jersey, Tayeb Souami lived in Africa. He immigrated to the United States in 1996. His life after arriving in the United States is an incredible immigrant success story.

Once in the US, Tayeb Souami became an accountant for a food processing company. He married and had two children. As he grew, his son actively discouraged his father from wasting money on lottery tickets before Souami won big.

Before his fateful trip to return orange juice, Souami had multiple financial burdens that had just recently come his way. Souami, at 56, was still paying off his own college loans.

In addition to the loans, his daughter had recently started attending college herself, and her tuition was understandably high.

To deal with these costly issues, Tayeb Souami and his wife decided to refinance their house. To make every dollar count, they also made it a goal to save money where they could, even on groceries.

This is why, when Tayeb Souami arrived home with his $5 bottles of orange juice, his wife sent him back to the store to return them. There was a much better sale, $2.50 a bottle, at another local store, and she wanted to take advantage of the savings.

Powerball Jackpot Winner

Tayeb Souami’s lucky bottle of orange juice was bought at a ShopRite in Hackensack, New Jersey.

When he returned home, and his wife saw how much he had paid for the drink, she sent him right back to return it. The savings were small enough to be considered pocket change by many, but Souami didn’t argue.

Once he made it back to the ShopRite, Souami had planned to get his refund and be on his way–but something behind the counter caught his eye.

What had distracted Tayeb Souami was a sign advertising that the Powerball jackpot had made it to an incredible $315 million.

**A closeup look at the $315 Million check. Photo via Infobae.**

Something about that number spoke to Tayeb Souami, and he decided to spend some of the money from the returned orange juice on two Powerball tickets.

Any other time, purchasing the lottery tickets would negate the entire point of returning the orange juice. But as Tayeb Souami and his wife would soon discover, the lottery ticket purchase would be the smartest decision of the 56-year-old accountant’s life.

We aren’t sure what numbers Souami chose for the first ticket, but for the second he picked 3, 6, 9, 17, 56, and 25 for the Powerball. After this purchase, Souami would pocket the tickets and move on with his evening.

The following day, Tayeb Souami left his home with the intention of washing his car. Before he could accomplish this task, he spotted a 7-Eleven and suddenly remembered his lottery ticket purchase from the previous day.

Souami popped into the 7-Eleven to check his tickets, just in case. The first one wasn’t a winner, so he scanned the second. Instead of giving him another “not a winner” screen, or even declaring that he had won a small amount of money, the lottery machine read “must be seen by the retailer”.

Even then, Tayeb Souami had no idea that he had won the Powerball–the possibility just seemed too remote. He handed his ticket over, commenting to the cashier that he thought the 7-Eleven’s machine might be broken.

He watched in confusion as the cashier scanned the ticket and her eyes went wide. Then, the cashier exclaimed, “Oh, my God!”.

Souami would recall that it was at this point his heart started racing. Still, the cashier could only gasp “Oh, my God! Oh, my God!”.

Tayeb Souami was the sole winner of the $315 million Powerball jackpot.

Tayeb Souami’s Life After His Powerball Jackpot

After convincing himself that he wasn’t dreaming, it took Souami 2 hours to drive home because his hands were shaking so violently. His wife was understandably concerned when he showed up hours later after leaving simply to get his car washed.

**Tayeb Souami during a press conference.**

She confronted him, but her annoyance faded as soon as her husband showed her the lottery winner paperwork he was carrying. With that, Tayeb Souami burst into tears–his family’s lives were about to change forever.

Upon winning a Powerball jackpot worth millions, most people would rush to get their ticket cashed in and reap their rewards. But Tayeb Souami took a little longer–something was holding him back.

Surprisingly, Tayeb Souami took some time to come forward after his lottery win because he was worried about the people he worked with and how they would fare if he quit his job.

Souami would be receiving enough money to where he would never have to work again in his life, but would his former company be okay without their accountant?

After the big-hearted Souami guaranteed his 200+ coworkers would be okay, he finally felt ready to quit his job and go public with his big news–Tayeb Souami was now a multi-millionaire!

While Souami won a jackpot of over $315 million, he had two choices–receive payments monthly for the rest of his life or take a reduced lump sum payment. Souami chose the lump sum and received $183 million in cash.

Despite this enormous amount of money, his plans were humble. Tayeb Souami would tell reporters at the press conference announcing his win that he wasn’t even going to move.

Instead, Tayeb Souami planned to pay off his house in Little Ferry, New Jersey, pay off his student loans, and pay for his daughter’s college. Even after conquering the one in 292.2 million odds to win the lottery, Tayeb Souami put his family first.