SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California man received a long-awaited payday from a client and parlayed it into a record-breaking scratch-off lottery bonanza.
After getting paid Tuesday, Chad Fry bought some shorts and then stopped at a convenience store in Auburn. He spent $30 on a scratch-off ticket and won $20 million in the California Lottery’s Set For Life Millionaire Edition game, lottery officials said.
Now, Fry can buy plenty of shorts. Hopefully, they have deep pockets to contain the cash he just won.
“I’m sure it will hit me that I’m a millionaire (now that I’ve seen) all those zeros!” Fry said in a statement.
Fry, who bought the winning ticket at Foothill Market in Auburn, won the largest scratch-off prize in state lottery history, KCRA-TV reported. The $20 million jackpot was twice as large as any other scratch-off game in California, lottery officials said.
Fry said he decided to try his luck on the Set For Life game because he had finally been paid for a construction job he finished during the winter.
“I had been waiting months for these people to pay me. So I had a little extra money,” Fry said in a statement. “When I was at the counter, it grabbed my eye, so I said, ‘Give me that $30 ticket,’ and that was it.”
Fry said he was going to wait until he got home to scratch off the ticket, but he took a detour after remembering he had to stop at a grocery store.
In the parking lot, “I was like, hold on, let me scratch this thing really quick. I scratched the first line, got halfway through the second (line) and saw (the word) ‘LIFE!’”
Five grand prizes still remain in the promotion, lottery officials said.
Players have the option to receive an annual payment of $800,000 before federal taxes for 25 years or take a lump sum.
Fry chose the latter option, collecting an $11.6 million lump sum before federal taxes. He said he plans to buy a new F250 truck.
And most likely, more shorts.