Truck driver buys lottery ticket over 800 miles from home — and wins ‘big one’
A Wisconsin truck driver’s decision to purchase lottery tickets while passing through Virginia made for a serendipitous pit stop as he won the game’s top prize, lottery officials said.
Patrick Golz purchased a pair of $1,000,000 Gold Rush tickets, worth $50 each, and won the $1 million grand prize after scratching the second ticket, the Virginia Lottery said in an April 8 news release.
“You never think you’re going to hit the big one,” he told lottery officials.
Golz — from Wild Rose, Wisconsin — chose to take the prize in annual payments, which he plans to invest, according to the lottery.
He bought his winning ticket at a gas station in Lambsburg, about a 150-mile drive northwest from Raleigh, North Carolina, lottery officials said.
The odds of winning the top prize in the $1,000,000 Gold Rush game, which began November, are 1 in 734,400 and the overall odds of winning are 1 in 3.55, according to the lottery.
Prizes range from $75 to the $1 million top prize, lottery officials said. Three top prizes remain unclaimed.
This story was originally published April 8, 2025 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Truck driver buys lottery ticket over 800 miles from home — and wins ‘big one’."
