US Man Finds $20 On Ground, Buys Lottery Ticket And Wins $1 Million

A $20 bill lying on the ground, outside a convenience store, became the road to a $1 million lottery for a North Carolina man. On October 22, when Jerry Hicks, a master carpenter from Banner Elk was headed to a convenience store, he found a $20 bill lying on the ground.

“I found $20 in the parking lot outside the Speedway,” Hicks recalled, as per the press release. “I used that to buy the ticket.”

He picked it up, walked into the Speedway on N.C. 105 in Boone, and bought an Extreme Cash scratch-off.

“They actually didn't have the ticket I was looking for so I bought that one instead,” he laughed.

He hit the jackpot with a $1 million lottery.

The winner had two options to claim his prize money - receive the prize as an annuity of $50,000 over 20 years or a lump sum of $600,000. He chose the latter and took $429,007 after required state and federal tax withholdings.

Hicks has plans for the family. He wants to use the winning amount to help out his children and retire after working as a carpenter for 56 years.

When asked, what is the first thing he would do to celebrate the big win, he said, “We are going to head straight to Golden Corral and eat everything they've got.”