First Big Lottery Winner is Van Buren Man
By: KARK 4 News
Updated: October 13, 2009
Think about your best week, and it still may not compare to this.
A Van Buren man has cleaned house in the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, hitting the jackpot for $100,000.
But the money is just part of Joe Pierce's amazing week.
"This week I had a baby, the Hogs beat Auburn and I won a $100,000," says the 34-year-old winner.
Pierce has been working at the #2 Pointer Express in Van Buren for about a month and a half, and Sunday night he got a bit of a pay bump.
"I was working and we hit a slow time so I took a little break, bought a ticket. I won $5 and cashed it back in for another ticket, which was the $100,000 winner. I was in disbelief. I called my wife and she didn't believe me. I actually had to bring her here to the store to prove it to her," says Pierce.
Pierce's boss' Lee Jane Clotfalter was on the phone with Pierce when he found out he won. "He called me and he couldn't get his ticket to scan, it just said please sign back of ticket and claim at the lottery office. So i'm telling him, well you at least won $500. He said well what do I do, and I said scratch the ticket off and see how much you won, and he started screaming and said he won $100,000 and I was like whatever, and he's like I'm not kidding and everybody's yelling in the store," Clotfalter recalls.
Co-worker Tesha Hickey, sold Pierce the winning ticket, which at the time she warned against. "He's been buying them for like a week and I keep telling him that you're wasting your money, you're wasting your money."
Pierce's thoughts? "The best $5 I've ever spent."
His hundred-thousand-dollar plans consist of putting a down payment on a house, getting a new car and spending the rest on his two girls, 13-year-old Lorin and of course 5-day-old Kinley Joe.
But one thing he won't be doing is skipping work. "Yes he's got to work. No call ins, no shows, he's got to work. He's got to be here. 10-2 is his shift," Clotfalter says.
A Van Buren man has cleaned house in the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, hitting the jackpot for $100,000.
But the money is just part of Joe Pierce's amazing week.
"This week I had a baby, the Hogs beat Auburn and I won a $100,000," says the 34-year-old winner.
Pierce has been working at the #2 Pointer Express in Van Buren for about a month and a half, and Sunday night he got a bit of a pay bump.
"I was working and we hit a slow time so I took a little break, bought a ticket. I won $5 and cashed it back in for another ticket, which was the $100,000 winner. I was in disbelief. I called my wife and she didn't believe me. I actually had to bring her here to the store to prove it to her," says Pierce.
Pierce's boss' Lee Jane Clotfalter was on the phone with Pierce when he found out he won. "He called me and he couldn't get his ticket to scan, it just said please sign back of ticket and claim at the lottery office. So i'm telling him, well you at least won $500. He said well what do I do, and I said scratch the ticket off and see how much you won, and he started screaming and said he won $100,000 and I was like whatever, and he's like I'm not kidding and everybody's yelling in the store," Clotfalter recalls.
Co-worker Tesha Hickey, sold Pierce the winning ticket, which at the time she warned against. "He's been buying them for like a week and I keep telling him that you're wasting your money, you're wasting your money."
Pierce's thoughts? "The best $5 I've ever spent."
His hundred-thousand-dollar plans consist of putting a down payment on a house, getting a new car and spending the rest on his two girls, 13-year-old Lorin and of course 5-day-old Kinley Joe.
But one thing he won't be doing is skipping work. "Yes he's got to work. No call ins, no shows, he's got to work. He's got to be here. 10-2 is his shift," Clotfalter says.
