A North Carolina man found a $20 bill and decided to use it to purchase a scratch-off lottery ticket, leading to a significant reward.
Jerry Hicks, a skilled carpenter from Banner Elk, North Carolina, struck it rich with a $1 million win from an Extreme Cash scratch-off he bought on October 22, according to a statement from the North Carolina Education Lottery.
Hicks discovered the $20 bill purely by chance.
“I found $20 in the parking lot outside the Speedway,” he explained. “I used that to buy the ticket.”
In another twist of fate, he realized upon entering the store in Boone that the specific lottery ticket he intended to buy was out of stock.
“They actually didn’t have the ticket I was looking for, so I bought that one instead,” he said regarding the Extreme Cash scratch-off. This unexpected decision resulted in him acquiring the winning ticket worth $1 million.
He submitted his ticket at the North Carolina lottery headquarters on October 25, as mentioned in the news release, and was presented with several options for claiming his cash prize. He could choose to receive $50,000 each year for 20 years or take $600,000 upfront.
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He decided on the latter, which amounts to $429,007 after state and federal taxes.
So, what does he plan to do with the money?
“We are going to head straight to Golden Corral and eat everything they’ve got,” Hicks said.
As far as his long-term plans, Hicks shared that he wants to retire after working as a carpenter for 56 years and use the money to support his children.
