A man in the United States won a lottery jackpot of $250,000 by buying tickets using the number he'd seen while sleeping. Alonzo Coleman, from Virginia, bought the ticket from a corner mart, a report in NBC-affiliate local WWBT said.

Mr Coleman bought the ticket for $2 and was surprised after winning quarter of a million dollars. "It was hard to believe!" he told lottery officials, according to WWBT. "It still hasn't hit me yet!"

Mr Coleman was looking at the draw on television on June 11 when he saw that the number sequence on his ticket - 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 - was a match. There was a bonus number 19 too but the first six numbers helped him win the huge sum.

The result of the lottery was announced on Thursday.

Coleman, a retiree whose age was not released, told lottery officials he had dreamt of the winning numbers beforehand.

Virginia Lottery released the photograph of a jubilant Mr Coleman posing with the giant $250,000 cheque and "I am a grumpy old man" t-shirt.

According to Newsweek, Virginia Lottery holds draws on Wednesdays and Sundays and the three top prizes are $1 million, $500,000 and $250,000. It further said that the odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 3.8 million.

There are many stories of major lottery wins that have stunned the world. Like a truck driver in Michigan who hit the jackpot of $1 million after initially thinking that he had won $2,000.

Fox2 Detroit said in a report that the man told the lottery office to give him the prize money as a one-time lump sum amount of about $693,000 rather than 30 annuity payments.