Imagine, a North Carolina man who went to a convenience store on Tuesday did not know that he was actually lucky.
Jerry Hicks, a master carpenter from Banner Elk, was walking past the store and noticed a $20 bill lying in the parking lot of the store, he said in the news release.
He used it to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket – and got $1 million. Hicks spent the money on an Extreme Cash scratch-off, the release stated.
“They actually didn’t have the ticket I was looking for so I bought that one instead,” he said. Hicks took the cash on Friday at the North Carolina Education Lottery Headquarters.
In the release, he opted to take the money in a single cash payment of $600, 000 rather than in annual installments for the next 20 years.
After taxes, the lottery said that Hicks earned $429,007. Hicks intends to spend the money on his children and to retire as a carpenter after 56 years, according to the release.
But before that, Hicks wants to enjoy his win; he wants to celebrate this victory like any other champion would do. “We are going to head straight to Golden Corral and eat everything they’ve got,” he said.
