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.
