Napolean Elvord Didn't Even Know He Won The Lottery

Napolean Elvord usually buys his lottery tickets at the same place, a Mobil gas station in Madison, Wisconsin. They know him there. As it turns out, that very gas station sold a winning Megabucks ticket worth $14.3 million last week. When employees at the gas station found out the big news, they started asking their customers, "Was it you?" They asked Napolean. He said it wasn't him.

A few days passed, and still the winner of the $14.3 million didn't step forward to claim their prize. Gas station employees kept asking their customers if they won. They asked Napolean Elvord again. Again, he said that it wasn't him, but he took the winning numbers anyway to check his tickets. Then he went home and compared the winning numbers to his ticket and thought that he might have won something. So he took the ticket to Wisconsin Lottery's prize claim office and, sure enough, it was him - He won $14.3 million!

Napolean Elvord won $14.3 million, yet he didn't even know he won the lottery. It's a good thing the gas station employees convinced him to check his ticket.

Now Napolean is a rich man. He's not interested in running out and spending his money on cars and houses and vacations like many new lottery winners do, though. No, he's more interested in spending the money on his health. See, Napolean suffers from kidney failure and has been receiving dialysis treatments for five years now.

So Napolean Elvord plans to use the money to pay for a kidney transplant as soon as a donor becomes available. In the meantime, he wants to work with others that are suffering in similar circumstances. "I would like to work with people with kidney failure," he said. "I mean, I know there's a lot of people out there sick and until you've dealt with it yourself, you don't really know how bad things really can be."

Congratulations to Napolean and here's to hoping for a full recovery of his health.