A North Carolina construction worker is counting his lucky stars after winning a Scratch-Off jackpot not once, but twice, over the span of as many years.
Pharris Frank, 41, was almost a millionaire when he bought his second winning ticket last week while working in Morehead City.
Stopping at a local gas station for a bite to eat, Frank bought the $20 Diamond Dazzle ticket, with a one in 1,528,470 chance of hitting his spectacular top prize of 2 million dollars.
And against all odds, the blue-collar worker struck, prompting him to call his wife at their home four hours away to tell her about his life-changing journey.
however frank and his wife have already seen their lives change in 2021 in a strikingly similar way with a separate $1 million jackpot on a $25 Extreme Cash scratcher, the odds of which were an even more astronomical one in 2,017,650.
DEJA VU: Pharris Frank, seen here with his wife, was nearly a millionaire when he bought his second ticket last week (left), for a lump sum of $900,000 after taxes. That was on top of the $425,000 he won from a jackpot in 2021, for a double win whose odds are one in three billion.
The lucky worker purchased the winning ticket while working at the Handy House Gas Station Food Market, a location across state from his home and where he purchased his first winner.
The odds of landing consecutive top prizes are a staggering one in three trillion, which is equal to not just millions, but an occurrence roughly 200 million times rarer than being struck by lightning.
Speaking to the lottery company that sold him the winning tickets on Monday, the lucky worker insisted that he accurately predicted his second win after the initial one in July 2021.
He added that he felt incredible that he had bought the second ticket a considerable distance from where he had bought the first, more than four hours away in his and his wife’s native Advance.
“It’s crazy because the day before I won, my friend was asking me how it felt to win $1 million,” he told the NC Lottery on Monday after choosing the game’s one-time payment option, which, after tax, amounts to $855,006.
“I told him I was going to double it.”
And he did it twice: The nearly $900,000 sum adds to the roughly $425,000 he’s already received from the 2021 winning ticket, for which he also chose to take home a fixed payment rather than a 20-year paid annuity option. .
Originally $600,000, the lump sum for that win, after state and federal taxes withheld, came to $424,507, an amount he and his then-fiancée said at the time they were planning to save for a dream wedding.
Now that that day has come and gone, it seems the couple’s dreams are still being shaken, and Frank now recalls how he nearly pinched himself last week when he found out he had won again, despite his own prognosis.
Stopping at the gas station for a bite to eat, Frank bought the $20 Diamond Dazzle ticket, giving him a one in 1,528,470 chance of winning his amazing $2 million top prize.
The nearly $900,000 sum was added to the roughly $425,000 he received from the first $25 winning ticket, seen here
“I didn’t know if I was dreaming or not,” he told the local lottery company. I was in shock for a while.
Laughing at his luck, he said: “I called my wife and said, ‘I did it again.’
Frank further revealed that he had purchased the winning ticket at the Handy House Gas Station Food Market, a location across state from his home and where he purchased the first ticket, Rivertrail Mercantile on US 64 East in advance.
“It’s great because the first time I won I was two miles from home and this time it was four and a half hours,” the bricklayer marveled.
‘What are the chances that I’m down there at that exact moment?’
He claimed his prize Monday, posing with a novelty check for a nearly identical photo to the one taken two summers ago during the pandemic.
After saving most of the first jackpot and spending part of it on a wedding ceremony, Frank says that he plans to spend part of his latest winnings on a romantic getaway for himself and his lady love.
Frank purchased his first winning ticket at Rivertrail Mercantile on US 64 East in advance in July 2021, near his home about 300 miles away.
After saving most of the first jackpot and spending part of it on a wedding ceremony, Frank says that he plans to spend part of his latest winnings on a romantic getaway for himself and his lady love.