‘I’m your long-lost nephew!’ Jokes fly as man wins largest-ever lotto prize in Alaska
A man who just won the largest-ever jackpot prize in the history of Alaska’s lottery says he’ll use it to pay off his bills.
George Tagarook told Lotto Alaska officials he’d only been playing the lottery for a few months when he got lucky on Jan. 8 and picked the winning card in the Chase the Ace game, making him the winner of the $3.5 million prize and the first multimillion-dollar winner ever, officials said on Facebook.
It’s the largest jackpot awarded by Lotto Alaska “by far,” the Anchorage Daily News reported. The next closest was won on April 17, 2022, with a prize of $908,000, the outlet reported.
The multimillion-dollar prize caught the attention of jokesters on Facebook who claimed to be Tagarook’s nephew, child, or family member in general.
“Uncle! I’m your long-lost nephew!” one user commented.
“Let’s get a dna test done. I think you’re my dad,” another wrote.
Tagarook told local radio host Bob Lester he bought about $100 in tickets and wrote down the winning numbers on a piece of paper but had confused them a little bit.
“I thought they were off a little bit,” he said in the Facebook video. “The next day when I woke up I had to check the numbers again.”
Tagarook said he texted his niece, who helped him confirm that he had won the $3.5 million jackpot.
“There it was, 6-6-5-5,” he said.
Tagarook’s niece, the one who’d helped him confirm he had the winning numbers, accompanied him to claim his prize money.
“I want to thank my niece Cassie and Jonah for being my body guard picking (up) ... my winnings today,” he wrote on Facebook. “Love you both!”
Tagarook told Lester he would pay off his bills with his winnings.
