Lottery player thinks ticket is a bust — then he looks at it closer. ‘Unbelievable’
A man in Virginia was certain that his lottery ticket was a flop — until he took a second look and couldn’t believe his eyes.
“I called my wife. I said, ‘Baby, you’re not going to believe what happened to me,’” Norfolk resident Stuart Thompson told lottery officials in an April 11 news release.
He won $1 million in the Virginia lottery, according to lottery officials.
Thompson bought his lucky Multiplier Mania scratch-off ticket on April 1 at a Corner Mart on Chesapeake Boulevard in Norfolk, lottery officials said. When he first scratched the ticket, he didn’t think it won anything. But after a closer look, he realized he won the game’s top prize.
The odds of winning the jackpot prize like Thompson are 1 in 979,200, according to lottery officials.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling!” he told lottery officials. “I just can’t believe it’s real!”
Thompson could choose between taking the whole $1 million over 30 years in annual payments or cash out a $625,000 lump sum, lottery officials said. Thompson chose the lump sum.
The store that sold the lucky ticket got a $10,000 bonus.
This story was originally published April 13, 2023 at 10:15 AM with the headline "Lottery player thinks ticket is a bust — then he looks at it closer. ‘Unbelievable’."
