Lottery player used the same numbers for 16 years. He's finally a jackpot winner
Paul Bierwirth's longtime tradition 'paid off' when his go-to numbers were picked in a drawing, the North Carolina Education Lottery said in a news release shared with McClatchy News on July 18 via email.
Now, the lucky winner plans to help people impacted by Hurricane Helene, which battered parts of North Carolina in September. He hopes to donate some of his prize money to Samaritan's Purse, a charity that has raised funds for storm relief.
Bierwirth won $439,226 after a stop at a Speedway gas station in Greenville, McClatchy News reported. While there, he tried his luck on the Carolina Cash 5 game, which offers tickets starting at $1.
When Bierwirth was drinking his morning coffee, he checked the outcome of the July 14 drawing. That's when he realized his ticket beat 1-in-962,598 odds to hit the jackpot.
Bierwirth lives in Greenville, a roughly 85-mile drive east from Raleigh. He kept $315,145 after taxes, according to lottery officials.
It's not the first time sticking to a set of numbers has led to a big prize. Another North Carolina lottery player's persistence scored him a 'breathtaking' win, McClatchy News reported in June.
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'While the stay in respite might be short, the relationships that you build, and the support we offer, is long term with that connection with Haywood Street.' John Madden, 78, who prefers to go by "Jaunito," was living in Mexico when he fell ill. Unable to afford a doctor there, he came back to Asheville, where he lived for more than a decade before the pandemic in 2020. "I came back with no plans but to stay alive, if I could, or find out what was going on,' he said. He's experienced homelessness before — he estimated about 25 days total in the last five years — but the 10 days on the street before securing a spot at respite were brutal. One night on the street, "and I unravel in a way that is startling," he said. 'This place has been beyond miraculous," Madden said of the respite. "The staff are astonishing. I call them ninjas, because they have to handle every kind of problem, from psychological to housing ... I started to exhale once I got through the door.' Phillip Lucero, 65, was clear about the emotional and physical toll homelessness takes. He was in shelters for about three years, and on the street "fairly recently." 'This can really happen to anybody. I had a very good job. I had a really good apartment … And it just, piece by piece, fell apart in a matter of months," Lucero said. 'A couple of bad decisions and here I am. And it is extraordinarily difficult to survive." Places like respite make it possible, he said. They do a good job to make you feel "at home." He, Madden and Fowler are on various housing waitlists. Lucero said he has been on some of them for years. 'You become a target' The respite is working to break a cycle people can become trapped in when experiencing homelessness: bouncing from the street, to shelter, to jail, to the hospital and back. It is complicated by a lack of shelter beds. Further complicated by difficulty finding affordable housing. Sleeping or existing outside while homeless can result in a second-degree trespassing charge, Brown said. 'When you're homeless, you become a target for a lot of people. No one really cares about you," Guar said. You are arrested for disorderly conduct, for trespassing or are kicked out of buildings. It was enough to make him feel like no one "wanted anything to do with me." 'But these people here care," he said of respite. "They've shown me that there is people out there that care. My mentality has changed completely.' How to get help Call Haywood Street Respite at 828-301-3782. Learn more about respite referrals at More: BeLoved Asheville rebuilds with resilience in Swannanoa's Helene-damaged Beacon Village More: Could Asheville get alcohol-friendly social district downtown? Council may consider it Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@ or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Downtown Asheville's Haywood Street Respite is expanding its beds Solve the daily Crossword
