An American found $20 on the ground, bought a lottery ticket and won $1 million.

New Delhi:

A $20 bill lying on the ground outside a convenience store became a North Carolina man’s ticket to a $1 million lottery prize. On Oct. 22, while Jerry Hicks, a master carpenter from Banner Elk, was heading to the store, he discovered a $20 bill on the ground.

“I found $20 in a freeway parking lot,” Hicks recalled, according to the report. press release. “I used it to buy a ticket.”

He took it, went to the freeway on NC 105 in Boone and bought an Extreme Cash scratch card.

“They didn’t actually have the ticket I was looking for, so I bought it,” he laughed.

He hit the $1 million lottery jackpot.

The winner had two options to claim their prize money: receive the prize in the form of an annuity of US$50,000 over 20 years or a lump sum payment of US$600,000. He chose the latter and received $429,007 after withholding mandatory state and federal taxes.

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

When asked what the first thing he would do to celebrate a big win, he replied, “We’re going to go straight to the Golden Corral and eat everything they have.”