A New Jersey man, Mr. Mike Weirsky is searching for the person who unknowingly changed his life for good and allowed him to win the Mega Millions jackpot.
He accidentally left his lottery tickets in a convenience store shortly after he purchased them last week. But because of a stranger’s good deed, Mike, who was recently-divorced and unemployed, is now the proud winner of the $273 million jackpot.
The saga unfolded last Thursday when Mike made a stop at a Phillipsburg QuickChek and purchased the Mega Millions lottery ticket, the Associated Press reported.
Though Mike felt hopeless, he returned to the store on March 1 to see if someone had found his missing tickets — and to his surprise, someone did.
After the store properly verified that the tickets were his, Mike claimed them back. “I was very surprised… when they were there, I was just very happy. I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
He didn’t realize he had won the jackpot, however, until two days later when he noticed his numbers matched the winning ones, prompting him to return to the store once again.
It was certainly a close call, as lottery officials explained on Thursday that the person who found the tickets could have held onto them, signed them and claimed the jackpot for themselves.
“I’m looking for the guy that handed them in, I want to thank him,” Mike said, according to AP. “I’m going to give him something, but I’m going to keep that private.”
With his winnings, Mike plans on buying a new pickup truck, a new car for his mother and plans to remodel her home. It also comes at an exceptional time, as Mike was personally struggling without a job and with a divorce.
“It’s gonna change everything because I was unemployed,” he shared. “I recently got divorced in October and I followed her around for 15 years and she worked and I didn’t.”
“I’ve been looking for just about a year for a job that I felt was worth it,” he explained, adding that he hadn’t had a single interview in 18 months. That is until this past Wednesday when he was already a Mega Millions winner.
Now, as he continues to search for the kind stranger, Mike is riding the high from his excitement and looking back on how quickly his life has changed.
“I was down and now all of a sudden, I’m way up,” he said. “I don’t know how much higher I can get!”
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