North Carolina man wins $1m jackpot after finding a $20 bill in parking lot

An abandoned $20 bill became a $1m jackpot for a North Carolina man who plans to finance his retirement with his good fortune.

Jerry Hicks, a carpenter from Avery county, walked into a Speedway convenience store after having found a $20 bill in the parking lot outside. He used the newly discovered bill to buy a $25 Extreme Cash scratch-off ticket – and it turned out to be a lucky investment.

According to a news release from North Carolina lottery officials, Hicks had first planned to buy a different lottery ticket that the store didn’t have – so he settled for playing the Extreme Cash lottery instead and won the seven-figure jackpot.

“They actually didn’t have the ticket I was looking for, so I bought that one instead,” Hicks said in a news release that went viral in circles of the internet dedicated to finding stories with good outcomes.

Hicks claimed his prize money at the North Carolina Education Lottery headquarters on Friday. He opted to receive the prize as a lump sum of $600,000 instead of as an annuity over 20 years, according to the news release.

The lottery winner took home $429,007 after the required state and federal taxes.

Hicks shared that he plans to use his winnings to retire after 56 years of working as a carpenter. He also plans to help his children. But a family celebration is first on the list.

“We are going to head straight to Golden Corral and eat everything they’ve got,” he told lottery officials.