A military veteran saw his luck double in March, as he collected a whole lot more lottery winnings than he initially thought he was going in for after receiving a ticket for his birthday.
Dennis Parks from Carthage, a city in North Carolina, entered into the lottery’s office on the last day of March ready to claim a $50,000 scratch-off prize.
The man, who was bought the ticket by his daughter for his 81st birthday, was then told he’d actually be leaving with a whopping $100,000 ticket much to his surprise.
“It was just my day, I guess,” he told the lottery company and laughed. “She [his daughter] bought the ticket for me for my birthday. It was my 81st birthday on Monday.”
“While Parks, a military veteran, waited to claim a $50,000 prize on a Merry Multiplier scratch-off at the office on Oak Branch Drive in Greensboro, his daughter purchased a Keno ticket for him,” the lottery said.
To win the prize, Parks’ matched all 10 numbers in the 10 Spot game which secured the huge sum.
Military vet secured massive lottery win on his 81st birthday
The $100,000 was then collected on April 1 at the lottery headquarters in Raleigh and, after taking off the federal and state tax withholdings, a total of $71,751 was able to be taken home.
When asked what he would do with the money, he said: “This is going to make things a whole lot easier for us now.” Parks plans to use the winnings to pay bills and take a family trip to Ohio.
Just a few days later, on April 8, the same lottery published that a North Carolina ticket holder had won a record $6.7 million digital instant jackpot.
The winner, who hadn’t yet claimed the prize, is from New Bern – a riverfront city near the state’s coast – hit the jackpot after purchasing a $2 Monopoly ticket. The lottery states the odds of that win were 1 in 25 million.
That win marks the biggest digital instant win in North Carolina since the games debuted in November of 2023.
Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram
