MOUNT CARMEL, Pa. — Usually, when most of us play the lottery and check our tickets, we get nothing. But that's not what happened to Oliver Golden of Mount Carmel on February 22 when he stopped at Friendly Choice Food Mart on Route 61.
"A friend asked me to stop and grab her a drink on the way to her house, and I said, 'Sure, why not?' I grabbed a ticket, and I just felt lucky," Oliver Golden said.
Golden played the Pennsylvania Lottery's Game of Life scratch-off ticket and won one of five top prizes: $1,000 a week for life.
Golden asked the clerks to double-check his ticket.
"I was like, 'That can't be real, right?' He said, 'No, it's real. It's real!' So, I called my mom and she's like, 'No, no, that didn't happen. You're joking with me,'" Golden recalled.
Golden says he chose this particular ticket because Life is his favorite board game.
"(I play the lottery) here and there when I have a feeling I might be lucky. But I never thought this would come of it," Golden said.
Prakass Patel of Friendly Choice Food Mart said he was happy that his store gets $10,000 for selling the winning ticket.
Golden says he's still in shock to be getting an extra $1,000 per week for the rest of his life. He's only 26. The first thing he wants to do with the extra cash is go to Ireland. He calls the prize money life changing.
"It makes you think about what you really want to do with your future. I want to be a doctor, and this sets me up for med school and to have a career and just kind of take a deep breath," Golden said.
Right now, though, Oliver Golden can't stop smiling.
Watch live Pennsylvania Lottery drawings every day on WNEP-TV.
If you are dealing with problem or compulsive gambling, call the PA Gambling Addiction 24-hour hotline at 1-800-GAMBLER, or get more information HERE.