A North Carolina construction worker counts his lucky stars after winning a scratch card jackpot not once, but twice, in the span of as many years.
Pharris Frank, 41, was almost a millionaire when he bought it his second winning ticket last week while working in Morehead City.
Stop by a local gas station for a snack, Frank bought the $20 Diamond Dazzle ticket – with a one in 1,528,470 chance of being eye-popping grand prize of $2 million.
And against all odds, the worker won, prompting him to call his wife four hours away to tell her about the life-changing catch.
Frank, however and his wife had already seen their lives changed in a surprisingly similar way in 2021 with a separate $1 million jackpot on a $25 Extreme Cash scratcher – the odds of which were even more astronomical than 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 $900,000 after taxes. That was in addition to the $425,000 he won on a 2021 jackpot – for a double win with a one in three trillion chance
The lucky worker bought the winning ticket while working at the Handy House gas station food mart – a location across the state from his home and where he bought his first winner
The odds of hitting the consecutive top prizes are an astonishing one in three trillion – not just millions, but an event that is about 200 million times rarer than getting stuck 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 his first in July 2021.
He added how he was thrilled that he bought the second ticket a considerable distance from where he bought the first, more than four hours back in his and his wife’s Advance.
“It’s crazy because the day before I won, my boyfriend asked me how it felt to win $1 million,” he told NC Lottery Monday after opting to take the game’s flat-rate option — which, after taxes, works out to $855,006.
“I told him I was going to double it.”
And he did double – with the amount of nearly $900,000 on top of the approximately $425,000 he already received from the 2021 winning ticket, for which he also chose to take home one fixed payment instead of an annuity option that paid over 20 years.
Originally $600,000, the lump sum for that win, after state and federal tax deductions, was $424,507 — an amount he and his then-fiancé said when they planned to save for a dream wedding.
Now that day has passed, it seems the couple’s dreams are still being changed, and Frank now remembers how he almost pinched himself last week when he saw that he had won again, despite predicting it himself.
Frank stopped at the gas station for a snack and bought the $20 Diamond Dazzle ticket – with a one in 1,528,470 chance of winning the eye-popping $2 million grand prize
The nearly $900,000 amount was in addition to the approximately $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 moment.”
Laughing at his happiness, he said, “I called my wife and told her, ‘I did it again.'”
Frank further revealed that he purchased the winning ticket at the Handy House gas station food mart – a location across the state from his home and where he purchased the first ticket, Rivertrail Mercantile on US 64 East in Advance.
“It’s cool because the first time I won it was two miles from my house and this time I was four and a half hours away,” the construction worker marveled.
“How likely are I to be down there at that exact moment.”
He claimed his prize on Monday by posing with a novelty check for a photo nearly identical to the one taken during the pandemic two summers ago.
After saving most of the first jackpot and spending part of it on a wedding ceremony, Frank says he plans to spend part of his last winnings on a romantic getaway for him and his lover.
Frank bought his first winning ticket at Rivertrail Mercantile on US 64 East in Advance in July 2021, near a tall house about 300 miles away
After saving most of the first jackpot and spending part of it on a wedding ceremony, Frank says he plans to spend part of his last winnings on a romantic getaway for him and his lover
.