Crash driver’s day improves with $2 million lottery win after smash

Mega-Millions lottery tickets

(AP)

A US man whose day started badly when he hit two deer with his new car discovered a few hours later he had won a $2 million (£1.4 million) lottery prize.

Anthony Dowe, of Leland, North Carolina, had the accident on his way to work and was so upset he went back home and went to bed.

“Then I woke up and checked my tickets. I checked the fourth ticket and I saw the ‘four’ and then the next number and the next number and the next number,” he said. “I’m like, ‘wow’. It was just crazy.”

His winning Mega Millions ticket matched all five white balls at odds of one out of 12.6 million.

Mr Dowe took his ticket to a store and won one million dollars and that prize doubled when the two times Megaplier ticket was drawn.

“I went and showed my dad and my mom and everybody was happy,” he said.

On Monday, he claimed his prize at the lottery headquarters in Raleigh and took home about 1.4 million dollars (£1 million) after taxes.

“It just feels great,” he said. “I’m just gonna fix things on my mother and father’s house and get my car fixed, pay it off, and pay my niece’s car off.”

The rest, he said, will go into savings.