$273 Million Lottery Winner To Reward Clerk Who Kept His Lost Winning Ticket Safe
A 54-year-old New Jersey man named Mike Weirsky is one lucky guy. Weirsky became a millionaire overnight after purchasing a couple $2 lottery tickets at a Quik Chek gas station near his home in rural Alpha. However, he came close to missing out on the winnings altogether. Weirsky accidentally left the tickets behind after purchasing them and went on his way. Thankfully, a thoughtful store clerk named Phil Campolo noticed the tickets and decided to keep them safe in the case that the owner came back to retrieve them, according to Today News.
When Weirsky woke up the morning after buying the tickets, he realized he didn’t know where he had put them and assumed they were gone for good.
“I put the tickets down, put my money away, and did something with my phone and just walked away. I figured when I woke up Friday morning, like, well, just another thing I lost.”
Nevertheless, he decided to return to the Quik Chek and discovered the tickets had been waiting for him there all along. When the winning numbers were later announced publicly, Weirsky checked his tickets. Sure enough, the winning ticket was in his hand. He couldn’t believe his luck and is beyond grateful for the kind clerk who was thoughtful enough to keep the tickets for him.
Mystery Good Samaritan handed in lost lottery ticket worth US$273 million https://t.co/MzDN3VANAV
— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) March 8, 2019
“I wouldn’t have 273 million dollars if it wasn’t for them,” he stated.
But what about Phil Campolo, the man who made the win possible? Weirsky hasn’t forgotten about his generosity and does plan to reward him in some way, financially or otherwise. However, he plans to keep the details of that exchange to himself. “I’m gonna give him something yes, but I’m gonna keep that private,” he said.
The winnings couldn’t have come at a better time for Weirsky who has been unemployed for 15 years and was living with his former wife, Eileen Murray. The pair divorced back in October but Weirsky wasn’t financially stable enough to move out on his own. Despite what many may think, Murray isn’t reconsidering their divorce simply because her ex-husband has suddenly become filthy rich.
“He’s not appealing to me all of a sudden because he has this money. I’m not going after anything. I have morals. I know what I’ve worked for and it’s everything that I have.”
Although Murray isn’t planning to reconnect with her former husband romantically, she does wish him well with his newfound financial freedom. She hopes that Weirsky surrounds himself with positive people and doesn’t allow himself to be taken advantage of because of his immense wealth.
