Son borrows dad’s lucky numbers to play lottery four years after his death — and wins

A man won the lottery using lucky sports numbers that his late father used to play with, according to the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Thomas Workman, 47, used numbers from the jerseys of some of his and his father’s favorite athletes, such as Scottie Pippen and Shaquille O’Neal — both former professional basketball players, according to a news release from the lottery.

“My dad used to play them and, after he died, I told myself, ‘I’m going to keep playing them,’” Workman told lottery officials, according to the release.

Workman won $120,000 in a Cash 5 drawing on April 3, nearly four years after his father’s death, the release says.

“I thought it was an April Fools’ joke,” Workman, who is a maintenance worker, said of the moment he won, according to the release. “I was flipping out a little bit.”

He told lottery officials that he believes in karma and that he had told his girlfriend “many times” that he would win the lottery one day.

“I just felt that one of these days something like this would happen to me,” he said, according to the release.

Workman bought his winning ticket at a convenience store in Winston-Salem, where he lives, according to lottery officials. He took home $85,500 after tax withholdings on April 4.

He told lottery officials that he plans to use the money to pay off his car and look into buying a house with his girlfriend.

Winston-Salem is about 100 miles northwest of Raleigh.

This story was originally published April 4, 2023 at 11:57 AM with the headline "Son borrows dad’s lucky numbers to play lottery four years after his death — and wins."