Preschool teacher loses his job of 20 years – buys lottery ticket at gas station and hits his knees

The covid-19 pandemic really caused a lot of suffering for some people. Some people lost their loved ones, some people lost their jobs, and a lot of people lost both.

Joe Camp was one of these people. Just when he felt completely down and out of luck, he got the surprise of a lifetime.

Joe Camp had spent 20 years working as a preschool teacher. He was suddenly laid off like thousands of others across the country when the Covid pandemic hit.

A month after he lost his job, he lost his father. He was going through an impossibly tough time. And it was taking a toll on him, just as it would on any other person.

He remembers it being a dark time for him. “It put me in a dark place,” he said according to the news release issued by the NC Lottery. “But I have a lot of friends and family that just told me to keep sticking in there, keep believing in myself.”

Just when he was possibly giving up hope that things would take a turn for the better; they did. Camp won the lottery, something people dream of!

During the dark period in his life, he made his way to his local gas station. “Thursday morning, I went to the store and bought a scratch-off ticket like I usually do,” Camp recalled. “And I bought two tickets. I didn’t win on the first one, so I tried the second and I scratched it off, and I fell to my knees at the gas pump.”

Joe is a regular at the BP gas station on Belhaven Boulevard in Northwest Charlotte, where he bought the ticket. The workers at the store are ecstatic for Joe and believe he truly deserved the win!

The father and grandfather had won a $250,000 Gold Rush ticket. He plans on using the winnings for his family! He hopes to buy a home that he can pass down to his daughter.

“What I plan on doing with my winnings is having a future for my daughter,” he said. “I want to have something for us. I never had anything. No one passed anything down, and that’s what I want to do.”