A Virginia man waiting to cash in his $1,000 winning lottery ticket ended up winning an additional $177,777 before collecting his prize.
Jeff Melick of Newport News told Virginia Lottery officials he was waiting until the lottery's customer service centers reopened to cash in his $1,000 winning scratch-off ticket when he purchased a Lucky 7s Tripler ticket.
The ticket turned out to be a $177,777 top prize winner.
"I kind of went numb," Melick said. "I was doing good with the $1,000 winner."
Melick said he plans to use some of his winnings to pay it forward by taking care of strangers' purchases at his local convenience store.
He bought his Lucky 7s Tripler ticket at the Wawa at 12093 Jefferson Avenue in Newport News.
Melick is the owner of Leave it to a Landscaper, a landscaping business in the Newport News area.
Lucky 7s Tripler features prizes ranging from $5 to $177,777. This is the first top prize claimed, which means three more $177,777 prizes are unclaimed in this game. The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 1,040,400. The odds of winning any prize in this game are 1 in 4.21.
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Having a $178K payday isn't a bad thing to have during these trying times. Congrats Jeff.
Great win, Jeff.
Landscaping sounds like hard work to me.
Awesome sauce, congrats Jeff.
Congrats Jeff.
$178K winnings is definitely awesome. Your wishes and prayers of ONE IS ONE DAY has been granted.
That is awesome. Some people are lucky.
He's got a generous spirit, congrats to him.
i wonder what the ticket number was.
He shall be blessed in life, i see he already is.
Love [generous wonderful kind people]
who possess
insta-thoughts of an
act of a beautiful kind blessing,
to be bestowed on others of less fortune et.al.,
A( RARE heart) God bless him.
If i win the "big one like the six figure's and up i sure would...
Heck,
i already do with winning a bunch of per year pick 4's in California
and for years now living east coast here in N.C. God bless this man. Congratulations.
P.I.F.F.G.L.
(Pay it Forward) for a good life ahead for you us all.
Congrats!
There are more winning tickets sold near lottery headquarters in Richmond than anywhere else in Va. Why is that?
Jeff found " another" K117. Here's how he did it..
That's great! Congrats to this guy. I love hearing about wins like this.