Ancil
A North Carolina guy hit upon a lucky streak when he found $20 on the ground and won $1,000,000 on the lottery.
Jerry Hicks, from Banner Elk, western North Carolina, found a $20 bill outside a Speedway convenience store in Boone on October 22.
Many people might grab the money and put it in their wallet, excited to get a muffin with their coffee or two beers at the bar.
Hicks spent the money right away, adding $5 of his own money to buy a $25 Extreme Cash scratch-off ticket because his usual lotto ticket wasn’t available.
The North Carolina Education Lottery estimated the odds of winning $1 million as 1 in 2,017,650.
Hicks was that one, and he went from being $20 richer to thousands of dollars richer in minutes.
Hicks collected his win at the North Carolina Education Lottery Headquarters on Friday. Instead of receiving the reward over 20 years, he chose a $600,000 flat amount.
The lottery said that Hicks won $429,007 after taxes.
An okay profit for $25, eh?
Hicks plans to retire and aid his children with the money after 56 years as a carpenter.
Before that, though, the father was just excited to take his family out to celebrate.
“We are going to head straight to Golden Corral and eat everything they’ve got,” he told lottery officials.
Fortunately, Hicks’ newfound wealth is more permanent than that of another man who thought he had struck it lucky when he woke up one morning to see an incredible $89,900,912 in his bank account.
Considering he wasn’t usually so rich, Manhattan venture capitalist Daniel Levene ‘knew it was a mistake’ – but that didn’t stop him thinking about traveling the world and treating himself to a yacht.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the company behind the transaction, E-Trade Financial Corporation, realized their mistake and took the money back.
At least Levene experienced multi-millionaire life—more than most of us will!
