ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Imagine this - you wake up on April Fools' Day, check your lottery ticket, and notice you hit big. It could feel like the ultimate prank, but a Fort Belvoir man can now attest that the holiday isn't just a day for jokes.
Sergeant First Class Gary Williams woke up on a Saturday morning and saw that someone had won the jackpot in the Virginia Lottery’s Cash 5 with EZ Match drawing the previous night. Little did he know it was him.
When Williams checked the winning numbers, he realized he was in fact the winner of that $143,553 jackpot. There was just one little problem. He had won the March 31 drawing, which meant that it was now April 1 - better known as April Fools’ Day.
“My son thought it was an April Fools’ joke!” he told Lottery officials as he claimed his prize.
Williams, who serves in the U. S. Army as a recruiter, bought his winning ticket at Woodland Exxon, located at 8861 Richmond Highway in Alexandria. He said he plans to save his winnings to put toward retirement.
The winning numbers in the March 31 drawing were 13-18-35-36-41. Lottery officials said the odds of matching all five numbers to win the jackpot are one in 749,398.