Man buys $50 lottery ticket on his way to work — and it wins big. ‘Wait a minute’

A Missouri man didn’t get the day off work he may have wanted, but his unexpected shift led to a life-changing lottery win.

On his way to work after getting called in, the man stopped at a Casey’s convenience store in Perryville to purchase gas — and a 500X scratch-off lottery ticket.

The ticket sat on his desk for awhile until he came back to scratch it. Then, he learned he was a $1 million winner.

He said he called his wife to verify the life-changing win.

“Once I saw it, I was just like, ‘Wait a minute!’” his wife said, according to an Oct. 15 Missouri Lottery news release.

The 500X scratch-off game costs $50 to play and offers three top prizes of $5 million.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he told lottery officials. “Until I got to the (lottery) office, I wasn’t even sure if it was real!”

Perryville is about an 80-mile drive southeast from St. Louis.

This story was originally published October 15, 2024 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Man buys $50 lottery ticket on his way to work — and it wins big. ‘Wait a minute’."