Donald Goulding Sr. purchased a Pennsylvania Lottery ticket in July at the local corner market — like he does every evening — and wound up with a $1.06 million birthday present.
Goulding Sr., 68, of Mammoth, Mt. Pleasant Township, lives about 200 yards from the S&S Corner Market and stopped after work July 13 to buy a Match 6 lotto ticket.
He checked his tablet later that evening to find the winning numbers, and he thought he was “hallucinating.”
“I looked at (my ticket) 10 times,” Goulding said. “I said, ‘That must be me — it must be me.’”
After he realized he had won, he called his son, Donald Goulding Jr., to tell him the good news.
“I didn’t believe him at first,” said Goulding Jr., 46, of Kecksburg. “It was shocking, I mean, it’s life-changing for him.”
Goulding Sr. said he couldn’t sleep after realizing he’d won and went to the store early the next morning to validate his ticket.
“(S&S Corner Market) opened at 6 (a.m.),” Goulding Sr. said. “I was here at five after. I wanted to put it in that reader to make sure.”
Sure enough, Goulding Sr. was a winner. The ticket was the “best birthday present” he ever bought himself, he said.
He was presented Wednesday with a souvenir check by Pennsylvania Lottery Western Regional Sales Manager Victoria Holman and other officials.
Holman said the Match 6 jackpot run began June 25 and lasted until Goulding Sr.’s win July 13, generating more than $5.4 million in sales. She said this resulted in an “estimated profit of $2.2 million,” which goes directly toward older residents in Pennsylvania.
Lori Dailey, owner of the S&S Corner Market on Apollo Road, said she is glad Goulding Sr. was the winner.
“He’s supported me, you know, since day one,” said Dailey, 51, of Pleasant Unity. “He comes in all the time and plays his lottery.”
Goulding Sr. almost won a $3.8 million jackpot three years ago on a ticket purchased at S&S Corner Market — having five of the six numbers.
“I kept on playing,” he said.
As a lottery retailer, Dailey said, this is the second $1 million ticket sold at the store. The first was in 2016. The store earns a $10,000 bonus for selling the ticket.
She’s happy someone local won the lottery but said other customers are remorseful that they weren’t the lucky ones.
“That’s all I keep hearing about is that … it wasn’t them,” Dailey said. “They should’ve come in then and bought their ticket.”
Though Goulding Sr. said there were “too much taxes (taken) out” of his winnings, he hopes what’s left over will allow him to retire and enjoy life.
So far, he’s purchased a three-wheeled Harley-Davidson motorcycle and plans on taking a few more fishing trips to one of his favorite spots at Lake Erie.
