Claire Reid
A man won a $1 million lottery jackpot just three days after telling his employer he would be retiring. I bet that will help get those retirement plans off to a flying start.
Paul Bashaw, from West Boylston in Massachusetts, informed his boss that he would be retiring from his job as a truck driver after more than two decades with the company.
Fast-forward three-days to Thursday, 20 July and Bashaw purchased a Massachusetts State Lottery’s '$5,000,000 100X Cashword' instant ticket, which turned out to be a $1 million winner.
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The odds of winning the $1 million prize are a staggering one in 1.008 million.
Talking about his incredible good fortune, Bashaw said: “I told my wife there were three things in life I never thought I’d see happen: the Patriots winning the Super Bowl, getting a hole in one - that happened five years ago - and hitting the lottery, and now I’ve hit all three.”
The 65-year-old decided not to share his news with his co-workers and quietly worked out his two weeks’ notice with the knowledge he was now considerably richer than he had been just days before.
Bashaw chose the cash option on his prize and received a one-time payment of $650,000.
He says he plans on spending some of his new-found riches on traveling.
J & J Variety, where he purchased the lucky ticket will receive a $10,000 bonus for its sale of this ticket.
Although a lottery is literally a huge game of chance - there have been several people over the years who have claimed to use a system to help boost their chances of winning.
One such person was Richard Lustig, from Orlando in Florida, who managed to scoop big prizes in seven state-sponsored lottery games from 1993 to 2010, with his wins totalling more than one million dollars.
During an interview with CBS, Lustig claimed he had played the lottery for around 25 years with limited success until he hit upon his special method.
He explained: "It doesn't matter how you pick your numbers, once you pick your set of numbers, research them to know if it's a good set of numbers and stick with them.
"There's no magic method to picking your numbers, I get emails every day asking. One number doesn't win the jackpot, a set of numbers does.
"The lazy way out is to buy quick-picks. The computer picks out the numbers. Don't play quick-picks. Quick-picks are the worst thing you can do, you are playing with the worst odds.”