North Carolina Man Finds $20, Uses It to Buy Scratch-Off Lottery Ticket and Wins $1 Million

Jerry Hicks, a master carpenter from Banner Elk, North Carolina, won $1 million after purchasing an Extreme Cash scratch-off on Oct. 22.

A North Carolina man found $20 in a parking lot and decided to use it to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket — a decision that paid off in a big way.

Jerry Hicks, a master carpenter from Banner Elk, won $1 million after purchasing an Extreme Cash scratch-off on Oct. 22, according to a news release from the North Carolina Education Lottery.

The lucky winner said he noticed the $20 by chance.

“I found $20 in the parking lot outside the Speedway,” he shared. “I used that to buy the ticket.”

In another fateful moment, he learned when he entered the store in Boone that the original lottery ticket he wanted wasn’t available.

“They actually didn’t have the ticket I was looking for, so I bought that one instead,” he said about the Extreme Cash scratch-off. The unexpected turn of events led to him buying the winning $1 million ticket.

He turned in his ticket at the North Carolina lottery headquarters on Oct. 25, according to the news release, and was given a few options on how he could receive the cash prize. He was told he could either receive $50,000 annually over 20 years or take $600,000 upfront.

He opted for the latter, which totals $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.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com