Ky. father splits $500K winning lottery ticket with two sons

CALIFORNIA, Ky. (WAVE) - An exciting family moment has been created for a Kentucky father and his two sons after they split $500,000 from a winning Kentucky Lottery scratch-off ticket.

According to the lottery, William Hicks owns a garage door repair company where his two sons, William Jr. and Stephen work.

The two brothers would often ride to work together and sometimes stop for lottery tickets. On Friday, they bought two tickets at the Speedway gas station in Alexandria without knowing their lives would soon change.

“I’ll usually scratch one and he’ll (Stephen) scratch one,” William Jr. said in the release. “Stephen suddenly tells me we’d won five hundred thousand dollars, but I figured he was looking at it wrong. We must have looked at it 40 times and I asked to be pinched a few times.”

The winning “$2,000 Loaded” ticket matched the number 7, winning the game’s $500,000 top prize, the lottery said.

The brothers’ dad could not believe the news when they called him.

“I was like, ‘no way,’” William said. “He spent the next few minutes trying to convince me.”

“William immediately started telling me who he was going to help out,” William’s father told the lottery. “That’s just the way he is.”

The three men went to lottery headquarters hours after scratching off the ticket. Kentucky Lottery said they each received a check for $118,333.33 after taxes.

Stephen told lottery officials he needed tires for his truck, and had recently just bought one tire, as it was all he could afford at the time.

“Now, I’m going to buy a truck,” Stephen said.

William Jr. told officials he plans to pay off his mother’s mortgage and help his grandmother. William Sr. said he plans to purchase the property where he had been renting out his farmhouse.

Kentucky Lottery said the Speedway store on Alexandria Pike in Alexandria will receive a $5,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.