A grateful lotto winner has given every worker in the store where he bought a USD 500,000 scratchcard a USD 100 bill as a thank you
Delighted Daniel Reffitt – from the city of Union, Kentucky State, USA – wished workers at a Meijer store an early ‘Merry Christmas’ after uncovering his amazing win on an instant ticket on Sunday, 27th July.
He told Kentucky Lottery: “I saw a few guys sitting down and gave them USD 100 [GBP 79] each and told them, ‘Merry Christmas’!”
The lucky punter said he was leaving the supermarket when he saw a lottery vending machine and decided to give his luck a try.
He reportedly wanted to go for a Fast Play ticket at first, before he suddenly had a change of heart and went for a Precious Metals Titanium scratchcard.
Daniel said: “I was reaching to press the button to buy the Fast Play ticket, then I thought, ‘Nevermind’ and bought the other ticket.”
He scratched off the winning numbers while he was still in the store and was stunned when he realised he’d scooped USD 500,000 (GBP 395,792).
Daniel explained that the first thing he did with the ticket was take a photo.
He said: “I took a selfie with it!”
And he explained that his wife was the first person he shared the news with and she told him: “You’re the luckiest man in the world.”
After state and federal taxes Daniel collected USD 357,500 (GBP 282,991) and said he plans to use some of the winnings to pay his bills.
Meanwhile, lottery officials announced that the retailer will receive USD 5,000 (GBP 3,958) for selling the winning ticket.
