John Davis Wins Lottery, Saving Home From Foreclosure

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. (AP) -- A Pawleys Island man says winning $200,000 in the South Carolina Education Lottery has saved his home.

John Davis says he went to a hearing on Monday about the possibility of losing his home to foreclosure.

Tuesday he let the computer pick his numbers for the Palmetto Cash 5 drawing at a gasoline station in Surfside Beach, adding a dollar to increase his winnings in case he got a winning ticket.

Wednesday, Davis discovered he had won.

The single father of two girls says he's had a tough year, financially. Davis says he had just $6 in his bank account when he won. He works at a car dealership and says he plays the lottery almost every day.

Davis says he plans to pay off most of his debt and will take a cruise with his daughters when the weather warms up.

Comments

[BetterTeachers]

11:20 AM on 01/21/2011

Bag the trip...put the left over money in the bank.

[Mr Hankey]

11:44 PM on 01/20/2011

Awesome!

[blinkthink]

12:15 AM on 01/19/2011

I'm happy for him and to the foreclosure :P

[Koeiseun]

11:47 PM on 01/17/2011

Seems like someone posting here tonight forgot to take their mellaril.....

[VanessaFas]

09:26 PM on 01/17/2011

Playing the lottery everyday is what leads to your downfall! While I'm glad he and his children won't lose their house, I think that his behavior needs to change to ensure they keep the house. Gambling daily is NOT a good idea.

[Mondieu]

01:03 PM on 01/19/2011

Exactly! Also, when he has no savings but plans to take his daughters for a cruise? Are you kidding me? He should be putting that money away towards their college tuition!!

[VanessaFas]

12:46 PM on 01/24/2011

I'm not even thinking saving for tuition, but paying next month's bills now, and prepaying a few months of property taxes, maybe. Why does my generation have a rock star-celebrity attitude toward money? Why don't we think the gravy train will end, and soon, and then what will we do? I'm glad I'm so cheap, this would never happen to me, but the then again, the taking the cruise part won't, either.

[moondancer13]

01:47 AM on 01/17/2011

I love when people who really need it win the lottery. Hopefully he can pay off his mortgage, take the kids on a trip, and put something in the bank. $200,000 after taxes isn't much these days...

[marinatha]

12:05 AM on 01/17/2011

After seeing some people win the lotto and become broke in a couple of years kind of takes my breathe away.I am pleased this man won.It could not have come at a better time.Take a deep breathe and enjoy!

[WinniethePuuuh]

11:26 AM on 01/30/2011

Yes that´s right.... Every second lottery win should go to people in situations like this.. A good day for this family:P

[LisaCACO]

11:20 AM on 01/16/2011

the man may be doing just fine except for the strain of his home foreclosure. that alone can drain your finances. he may have had one of those subprime loans that were given to folks even if they qualified for better loans, he may have been deceived into a subprime loan, whatever. playing the lottery may be his only vice-we don't know. some people drink, some smoke, some go dancing , some eat out, whatever. he buys a lottery ticket. buying a lottery ticket gives you a chance to fantasize, to hope, to dream. it's just fun for some, not a gambling "habit". you know the odds, you just think it's fun to do.

we should just issue congrats and wish his family well.

[lotterymechanic]

11:05 PM on 01/16/2011

thanks for the well wishes lisa.just to answer all the bad info.I went through a divorce,paid for her home,car and she died 3 months after it was final. I had to pay for two homes until I sold hers,along with a funeral and all the medical bills that went along with it. besides the fact that the economy crashed and I did try selling the house for 4 years.I don't smoke,drink or have any bad habits.spending 2 bucks a day for chance to win worked for me. I have a finacial adviser and as far as the cruise.when I was still married,I paid for a cruise that I still havent gone on.she went on a cruise with her new boyfriend.I am an easy guy to get along with and was still friends with my exwife..the debt I had was two attorneys,medical bills and I am not putting any money into the home because it was refinaced at 2% with the makinghomesaffordable program. amazing how a judge can get done in two days what took me two years.the money will be invested so my children will have money for college.I did have just 6 dollars in my checking account because I filled my car up with gas,bought pullups for my three year old and was getting paid friday and didn't need anymore money.I went broke to make sure my kids were safe.not all mechanics are stupid.

[CropCircles]

01:05 AM on 01/16/2011

Someone posted the worn out cliche about the Lottery being a tax on those who are poor in math. When I first heard it I thought it was funny (and I agreed intellectually). Then one day I was in line at a grocery store to purchase three $1 lottery tickets and some wise-acre in the same line made the remark in an obviously derisive fashion. I let it slide. But I was prepared in case it happened again. I did my math. The next time it happened I turned to the offending party and said "I have it all figured out. Assuming that there are no repeats on the 6-number picks and playing the same three sets of numbers twice a week (This is in Florida) I should have a winning ticket in around 85,000 years." The man and the clerk were dumbfounded and finally the clerk burst into a loud laugh while the other man said nothing. I left with my three tickets and a big smile on my face. It was too much of a surprise for anyone to quickly say that my two assumptions nullified my argument. One assumption being that I would live long enough and the other that there would be no repeats.

[SaddieMcCall]

09:24 PM on 01/15/2011

Very fortunate for him. However, I doubt I would spend my last $6 on lottery tickets. He was buying lottery tickets every day? I hope he breaks that habit.

[CropCircles]

12:49 AM on 01/16/2011

It is a problem when you can't get your story straight with the text right in front of you. The story did not say he spent his last $6 on the lottery. It only said he had $6 in his account when he won with the winning ticket. He added $1 to increase his prize in case he won, which he did. Based on the arithmetic I learned in grade school, $1 + $1 = $2. As for buying tickets every day, he didn't say that either according to the story. "Almost" every day does not = every day.

[LLisaLL]

03:04 PM on 01/16/2011

Regardless of how the article was quoted, the point behind is just as valid. They guy has a habit to get under control and priorities to straighten out.

[nothinbutgenius]

10:28 AM on 01/15/2011

Truly awesome! Rock on. Although I kinda doubt God had anything to do with it. But well, to each his own.

[enlightenedgirl]

10:22 AM on 01/15/2011

God works in mysterious ways, congratulations for the extra help, just in time.

[PJ Parker]

10:21 AM on 01/15/2011

The American Dream - Get lucky.

[TruelyFedUp]

12:49 PM on 01/15/2011

The lesson from Australia is that people at every level and in every state are working together to make things better for each other.

In the United States we have nearly 14 times the population of Australia yet we cannot figure out how to feed and house our homeless and jobless.

We have adequate resources to provide self sustaining communities for people to share on common land and they should be available to anyone in need.

We need to require our legislators to organize the resources or get out of the way so the citizenry can pull together and get it done, just as the Aussies are doing.

One of the first things we must require as law is the release of hoarded land held by the wealthy for speculation. It is unreasonable that Ted Turner owns over 2 million acres of land while families are living under bridges and in cars. It is unreasonable that our Bureau of Land Management which has over 2 million unused acres it is holding for the "use and benefit of the people" has not made viable land available for the creation of such communities.

We have more than the entire population of Australia unemployed at this time - 27+ million Americans; Australia's population is 22.5+ million. If we help those 27 million to have the resources to create self sustaining communities for their use till we have organized a better social design we will have used our most valuable resources (our people) wisely.

[CropCircles]

12:26 AM on 01/16/2011

"In the United States we have nearly 14 times the population of Australia yet we cannot figure out how to feed and house our homeless and jobless." - TruelyFedUp

We have it figured out. I am convinced of it. What we don't have as a compassionate society are leaders who care about their fellow humans and understand that their hunger from missing lunch to attend a fund raising fest has no relation to the hunger from not eating anything for days at a time and no place to sleep other than in building doorways using cardboard for cover. i.e. We don't have the political will.

[lotteryexaminers]

10:00 AM on 01/15/2011

Some of you will still spend your money on whatever after all the advice. Let the guy be.

[uncc49er]

09:37 AM on 01/15/2011

GOP plan for our economy. See , lottery based economy works, see it for yourself.