Some say that having a good friend is like winning the jackpot . So, what does it mean when you have a good, lifelong friend and you win the jackpot ?
Well, for two North Carolina residents and friends of 35 years, it means that they both get to walk away with some big bucks, after one shared his lottery winnings with the other.
Perry Charles won a North Carolina lottery earlier this month.
Charles won a $361,527 Fast Play jackpot. He’d purchased a ticket from the Mast Food Mart on Old U.S. 64 East in Lexington for $5, which would’ve entitled him to half of the $723,054 jackpot that was in play.
To his surprise, his ticket ended up being the winning one.
In recalling his purchase of the ticket, Charles said, “I’d just gotten off of work. I looked at the amount you could win and thought to myself , ‘Man, I want this!'”
When he saw that he did win, he called Scott Edwards right away.
The two had made a promise decades ago, that if either of them were to win a large sum of money from the lottery, they’d split the winnings with the other.
RELATED STORIES
Edwards was in disbelief that Charles had won.
He said, “I was lost for words. I was kind of in shock too because to me that’s a lot of money to win. And I know that anything he says is just the truth. So, I knew when he told me that he wasn’t pulling my leg.”
After all, they’ve known each other for so long, they knew exactly what kind of person the other was.
“He’s what you call a true friend,” Edwards continued. “Kinda like family.”
I think after knowing each other for that long, you pretty much are family.
The two met decades ago while working at Winn-Dixie.
Edwards said, “He was my boss!” Charles added, “We always talked about if we would hit something big, it didn’t matter if we went in together to get the ticket or if we got it separate, we were gonna share it with each other.”
It’s pretty amazing how they were able to keep that promise after all that time.
The pair both hope to pay off some bills with the money the won from the Fast Play jackpot, which is run by the North Carolina Education Lottery.
Even after taxes and withholdings, they both walked away with a nice amount of cash.
After federal and state tax withholdings, they walked away with $128,361. Not before snapping a pic with their giant check, of course.
After anyone wins, the Fast Play jackpot starts over at $20,ooo.
Every ticket sold just adds to the jackpot. Just a few short days after Charles and Edwards won, the jackpot made its way up to $398,188.
The NC Education Lottery raises money for schools in the state.
They write that the proceeds from scratch-off games help them to raise over $900 million for education-related use. Here’s hoping someone else will be just as lucky as these two friends!
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
