A man who has been without a home for 30 years won the lottery, it was reported this week.
Dennis Mahurin, who is known as “Double D,” won $50,000 after he purchased a scratch-off ticket, according a report from CINewsNow.com.
He has been living around Bloomington, Ill., since 1978 without a home and has resided in the same tent since the 1990s.
Mahurin said that he won’t make any big changes to his lifestyle but will help others instead.
“With all the other homeless people around here, I’ve made up my mind,” Mahurin said. “I’m gonna give them each $100.”
Emmarie Cross, who works at the Circle K where the winning ticket was bought, described Mahurin as a “very, very nice guy.”
“He’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met,” she said. “I’ve been telling everybody, this couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.”
Illinois State Lottery spokesman Mike Lang told ABC News that Mahurin was driven to Springfield, Ill., to validate the ticket.
“He sounded pretty upbeat,” said Lang. “He told me he was going to buy a trailer home.”
Lang told the network that he will receive the ticket in around three to four weeks, and after taxes, it will come out to around $35,000.
“It’s quite exciting, when I got the phone call I was jumping up and down and mostly it was because of who it went to,” Circle K manager Sandra Rankin told ABC.
She added: “He has been coming out ever since I started here. He is a great guy, has an awesome sense of humor. I care deeply for him and he is a very decent gentleman. He comes into my store three to four times a day.”
