Feel-good tale: Man gets $7M lottery ticket in get-well card
Posted: March 26, 2015 - 4:56am
NEW CITY, N.Y. (AP) -- A Pennsylvania man recovering from surgery has won $7 million off a lottery ticket tucked into his get-well card.
Joseph Amorese, of Easton, got the ticket from his father, who lives in the hamlet of Congers in Rockland County, New York.
Amorese had just undergone hernia surgery. A few scratches later on the "$7 million Golden Ticket," and he was feeling great.
"I scratched the ticket and it was a good thing I was already sitting down because I was shocked. I was -- and still am -- in complete disbelief," Amorese said.
"I had surgery so I didn't jump up and down, but in my mind I was jumping up and down," the beaming winner recalled Wednesday.
He sent a photo of the ticket to his dad, who agreed that it was a winner.
The 46-year-old Verizon employee then called his wife, Jodi, a social worker.
"I said, 'Honey, I think we won $7 million.' And there was silence on the other end for a long time. She was too stunned to talk," Amorese said.
Lottery officials presented Amorese with a ceremonial check at the dollar store in New City, New York, where the ticket was purchased.
The new multimillionaire and his wife plan to keep their jobs.