Photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash

It was the easiest payday that master carpenter Jerry Hicks ever made—and the biggest too.

He must have thought it was his lucky day when he stopped outside a convenience store and noticed $20 dollars on the ground. He didn’t know the half of it.

Hicks, from Banner Elk, North Carolina, took the $20 and walked into the Speedway on state Highway 105 in Boone on Tuesday evening and bought an Extreme Cash scratch-off, officials said.

Hicks said that the Speedway didn’t have the lottery game he preferred to play, so bought a different one he was unfamiliar with.

It’s interesting how all these little choices can seem so consequential when the result was that Mr. Hicks won a million dollars with the ticket he bought.

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“We are going to head straight to Golden Corral and eat everything they’ve got,” he laughed, speaking with North Carolina Education Lottery officials.

Offered the choice of an annuity of $50,000 over 20 years or a lump sum of $600,000, he chose the single payout and took home $429,007 after taxes.

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Hicks said he plans to use his winnings to retire after working as a carpenter for 56 years, and using what’s left after that (and Golden Corral) to even better support his children.

DELIGHT In This Tradesman’s Lucky Day—SHARE It On Social Media…