A Virginia man who won $100 from a lottery ticket parlayed the small windfall into a $100,000 prize after using his remaining $5 to buy a scratch-off ticket.
William Jackson of Stuarts Draft told Virginia Lottery officials he scored $100 from a ticket at the Food Lion on Stuarts Draft Highway and decided to put the winnings toward groceries. After shopping, he had $5 left over and stopped at a lottery vending machine to buy a Cash Wheel scratch-off ticket.
Jackson scratched the ticket before leaving the store and was shocked to see the $100,000 top prize. “This can’t be right,” he recalled thinking.
Ahead of claiming his prize the next day, Jackson said he struggled to sleep. “I only got two hours of sleep last night,” he said.
Jackson said the prize money will serve as an early 50th anniversary gift for him and his wife, who will celebrate the milestone later this summer.
The Virginia man’s story is the latest in a recent string of modest-investment lottery wins across the country. MSI previously reported on an Ohio man who retrieved a $100,000 lottery ticket from the trash after buying it at a gas station, and a Missouri man who won the same prize on his favorite scratch-off ticket. Other winners in recent weeks include a Michigan man whose road trip ritual yielded $2 million, a Maryland man who won $150,000 on three identical tickets, and a North Carolina man who accurately predicted his own $100,000 win.