New York man forgets to buy ice, wins $1 million lottery prize

Sept. 1 (UPI) -- A New York man who had to make a second trip to the store for some bags of ice ended up $1 million richer when he decided to buy a lottery ticket.

Waverly resident Neil Briggs, 43, who was presented with a ceremonial $1 million check at the Great New York State Fair, said he had finished running his errands for the day when he realized he had forgotten to pick up two bags of ice.

"I ran all my errands earlier that day, but I forgot to buy two bags of ice," Briggs said. "I ran down to the store to grab the ice and decided to buy a Lottery ticket while I was there."

Briggs said he rarely purchases New York Lottery scratch-off tickets, so the decision was a bit difficult.

"I had two 20s, a 5 and three singles on me. I can't justify paying $20 for a Lottery ticket and the dollar tickets really don't pay a lot so I went with the five dollar ticket," he said.

The $1 million scratch-off ticket didn't tell Briggs how much he had won, only that it was a "jackpot."

"I scratched the ticket and didn't really know what the word jackpot meant. I brought it back to the store and the guy behind the counter scanned it and told me it was worth a million dollars. Up until that point I had no idea I won that much!" he said.

Briggs chose the lump sum option, which will leave him with a total $536,058 after required withholdings.