Last-Minute Father's Day Gift Makes Dad Rich

It's early retirement for Joseph Morrah, 61
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 25, 2015 12:03 PM CDT
Last-Minute Father's Day Gift Makes Dad Rich
A gas station employee reaches for a lottery ticket, Thursday, May 14, 2015.   (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

A scratch-off lottery ticket bought as a last-minute Father's Day gift has turned a truck driver into an instant millionaire. Joseph Morrah, 61, was given the winning $1 Million Payout ticket on Sunday, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. His daughter, Christina Morrah, put the ticket in a card she gave to him. But his wife, Debbie Morrah, said it was her idea to buy the $20 ticket. "I said, 'Buy a lottery ticket for him,' because I didn't get him anything, and I felt bad," she said. Morrah, a supermarket truck driver for 31 years, had fewer than 200 days to retirement but is taking an early exit, thanks to his winnings.

The ticket was confirmed as a winner by officials in Harrisburg yesterday, a Pennsylvania Lottery spokeswoman says. Four other scratch-off tickets with the same game also have the $1 million top prize. Morrah, who has a 1960s-era Chevrolet Bel-Air, said he plans to buy "another muscle car" and a new pickup truck and give his current one to another daughter, Kimberly Morrah. "It still hasn't settled in," he told the newspaper. "When I see the check in my hand, then I'll believe it." (More lottery winner stories.)

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