William Hicks and his sons William Hicks Jr. and Stephen Hicks of California in Campbell County claimed a $500,000 Kentucky Lottery Scratch-off ticket last Friday – and for this Northern Kentucky family, winning the lottery is now a family affair.
William owns a garage door repair company where both of his sons work. William Jr. and his brother Stephen ride to work together, sometimes stopping for lottery tickets. On Friday morning, they stopped at the Speedway on Alexandria Pike in Alexandria to each buy a Scratch-off ticket.
The Hicks family following their big win. (Photo form Kentucky Lottery)
“I’ll usually scratch one and he’ll (Stephen) scratch one,” William Jr. said. “Stephen suddenly tells me we’d won five hundred thousand dollars, but I figured he was looking at it wrong. We must have looked at it 40 times and I asked to be pinched a few times,” he said. The ticket matched the number 7, winning the game’s $500,000 top prize.
Next, they called their dad to tell him the news.
“Dad, you’re not going to believe this. We’ve just won a half a million dollars,” William Jr. said.
“I was like, no way. He spent the next few minutes trying to convince me,” William said.
“William immediately started telling me who he was going to help out. That’s just the way he is,” his dad said.
The three men showed up at lottery headquarters hours later to claim the prize. After taxes, they each received a check for $118,333.33. Stephen told officials that he needed tires for his truck and the day before had bought just one because that was all he could afford. “Now, I’m going to buy a truck.”
William Jr. says he plans to pay off his mom’s mortgage and help his grandmother. As for the dad, he has been renting a farmhouse and is looking to buy the property.
Speedway will receive a $5,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.
Kentucky Lottery
