Meet The $17 Million Bachelor
The State:
Nineteen-year-old Jonathan Vargas bought his first lottery ticket, along with gasoline and an iced tea, Saturday at a Cayce Raceway station.
His errand made history.
With the ticket, the Gaston construction worker became the first South Carolinian to win the S.C. Education Lottery Powerball Jackpot.
North Carolina residents bought the previous four winning tickets.
While Vargas won $35.3 million, he is choosing to take a lump sum of $17.3 million instead. The Airport High School graduate should have his money within two weeks, lottery officials said.
"I have a mixture of feelings. Scary. Exciting. Still shocking," Vargas said. "I'm still telling my mother to pinch me."
Vargas said he was working a construction job Saturday morning when "this weird feeling came over me." He said he heard the lottery numbers in his head, jotted them on a napkin and called his mother to tell her to write them down so he could buy a ticket later that afternoon.
Vargas used the upcoming birthdays and ages of his four siblings to determine his winning numbers. His three younger siblings will turn 12, 14 and 15 this year, and his older brother will be 21. The fifth number he chose was for his mother, Patricia Richardson, who turned 43 on Sunday.
But the final Powerball number?
"Thirty was a lucky guess, I guess. It's a blessing from God, man."
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First Posted: 05-20-08 06:25 PM | Updated: 05-28-08 05:12 AM