Local Man Talks About A Close Call After Being Struck By Lightning

TEMECULA (CBSLA)  -- It's said that your chance of hitting the lottery is as unlikely as being struck by lightning.

To that end, Grant Steele of Temecula should probably up the number of lottery tickets he purchases.

He was struck by lightning -- and unhurt -- when a wild storm moved into the Southland Friday.

Did we mention Steele was unharmed? He spoke to KCAL9's Adrianna Weingold Saturday evening.

"I was just blinded. And I could smell it and I could feel the electricity like it was in the air," says Steele.

Grant and Tara Steele can't help but wonder what could have been last night after realizing he was struck by lightening.

"There was a really bright, blinding flash and I was like 'Woah'. I could smell and taste the electricity," says Steele.

The Temecula man had gone out in the storm to cover the window of his truck when he got the -- literal and figurative -- shock of a lifetime.

"I came in to [tell] my wife I felt like I almost got electrocuted and struck by lightning and when I took my hat off, I saw it was smoking," he says.

His wife Tara says he was understandably a little bit out of it when he came back inside but it wasn't until they saw his hat that they realized what had happened.

"I smelled the hat and I could smell the smoke from the lightning hitting his head and I was like, 'Are you okay?'" Tara says, "and he said 'I'm fine' and he took his beanie off and his hair was all there and he was totally fine, acting normal. Just a little scary."

She says her husband was wearing thick rubber boots and a rubber rain coat and perhaps that's what saved his life. Whatever it was, they all agree it's nothing short of a miracle.

The Steele family says they learned a very important lesson, they will not be going outside during a lightning storm ever again.