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Veteran in need of a kidney almost didn’t claim $14.3 million lottery ticket
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By Nadine Bells | Good News
Napolean Elvord needs a kidney transplant.
The Madison, Wisconsin, man, a Vietnam vet and semi-retired construction worker, didn't know that he had $14.3 million available to fund the life-saving surgery.
On January 14th, it was announced that the winning Megabucks ticket was sold at a Wisconsin Mobil station. For three days, no one claimed it. The clerks at the store even asked Elvord, who visits the station several times a day to buy coffee and lottery tickets, if he purchased the ticket. He said no.
The manager, eager to discover the newest millionaire — the owners earned a $100,000 commission from the lottery — asked Elvord again. This time, Elvord realized that he had mixed up the drawing days. Fortunately, the winning $1 ticket was still sitting on a table at his home.
He took the ticket to the Wisconsin Lottery office. He requested the lump-sum payment: after taxes, he walked away with $6.87 million.
He plans to return to the warmer climate of his native Texas — and put his money toward health insurance.
"I hadn't really made any plans yet, but I do look at the economy and think about the people that have lost homes that had homes and had jobs," he told NBC 15 in Madison.
"And I'm into construction. I like remodeling, fixing up things, and I'm looking at possibly doing something in that area to re-sell homes and bring people back into their housing area."
The humble winner claims the windfall was accidental.
"I think it was a mistake because I was trying to play the Powerball," he said, adding that the winning lotto numbers were computer-generated.
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