His family’s home was destroyed by fire. Now NC lottery winner is paying it forward
A North Carolina lottery winner can thank his family for his lucky payday.
Jonathan Gonzalez won a $1 million Powerball prize and plans to pay it forward tohelp relatives who lost their house in a fire, the N.C. Education Lottery said Wednesday in a news release.
Those same relatives, in turns out, helped Gonzalez choose the winning numbers, according to the news release.
“I had them each pick a number from one to 69,” Gonzalez told lottery officials. “And those were the numbers I played.”
Gonzalez had his relatives’ picks in mind when he stopped at a Speedway store near South Main Street in Salisbury. That’s where he bought a ticket that matched the five numbers his family members chose, leading to a $1 million win in the Powerball game, according to the news release.
Gonzalez’s own selection didn’t do as well.
“I picked the Powerball number and that was the only one I didn’t match,” he said jokingly, according to the lottery.
Gonzalez, who lives in Salisbury, beat odds of 1 in 11.6 million to snag the big prize. He got to keep $707,501 after taxes, according to officials.
“He said he planned to share his good luck with the family members who helped him because a year ago they lost their home to a fire,” the lottery wrote in its news release. “He said he also planned to pay off his mortgage.”
Salisbury is in Rowan County and roughly 40 miles northeast of Charlotte.
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 3:26 PM with the headline "His family’s home was destroyed by fire. Now NC lottery winner is paying it forward."
