‘Dad you’re not going to believe this.’ Family in disbelief over Kentucky lottery win

They work together, travel to their jobs together, and now three family members will share the top prize of a Kentucky Lottery scratch-off game.

Kentucky Lottery officials say William Hicks owns a business where his adult sons are employed, and the brothers often buy lottery tickets as they drive to work together.

The brothers, William Hicks Jr. and Stephen Hicks, each purchased a scratch-off ticket at a Speedway gas station in Alexandria on Friday, July 29. William Hicks Jr.’s ticket won the game’s $500,000 top prize.

“I’ll usually scratch one and he’ll (Stephen) scratch one,” William Hicks Jr. told Kentucky Lottery officials. “Stephen suddenly tells me we’d won $500,000, but I figured he was looking at it wrong. We must have looked at it 40 times and I asked to be pinched a few times.”

The first thing they did after realizing they won was call their dad.

“Dad, you’re not going to believe this. We’ve just won a half a million dollars,” William Hicks Jr. told his father, who needed minutes of convincing.

The trio split the winnings — all receiving more than $118,000 after taxes.

They each have a plan for what they’re going to do with their money. William Hicks plans to buy a farmhouse property he has been renting; William Hicks Jr. is going to pay off his mom’s mortgage and help out his grandmother; and Stephen Hicks intends to buy a new truck.

“William immediately started telling me who he was going to help out. That’s just the way he is,” the father said.

This story was originally published August 3, 2022 at 11:56 AM with the headline "‘Dad you’re not going to believe this.’ Family in disbelief over Kentucky lottery win."