TOPEKA, Kan. – Derek Mulkey, 25, of Hutchinson was getting gas one day last week and noticed a lady nearby struggling with a gas pump.
“She was having trouble figuring out how to use her credit card and how to operate the pump, so I went over and helped her out,” Mulkey explained. “Not a big deal, but I thought maybe my good deed might lead to some good luck, so I went in and bought a lottery ticket.”
Mulkey purchased a $5 Pac-Man instant ticket and scratched it in his car while he was still at the gas station. It wasn’t the first time he had purchased a Pac-Man ticket, but it certainly was the first time he had scratched off a $25,000 top prize!
“I was sitting in a meeting with my boss when I got a text from Derek with a picture of the winning ticket,” said Derek’s wife Hayley. “I just started smiling when I realized what he had won.”
The Mulkeys will celebrate their first wedding anniversary this month.
“It’s been an interesting year,” they agreed. “We got married, bought a house and now we’ve won $25,000!” The newlyweds plan to use some of their prize money to remodel their new house.
“It’s unbelievable. I feel pretty darn lucky. I think I will do more nice things more often now,” said the happy winner.
Derek Mulkey bought his lucky ticket at Kwik Shop at 1701 N. Monroe in Hutchinson. There is one top prize of $25,000 remaining in the Pac-Man game, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in other cash prizes.
Players can enter their non-winning Pac-Man tickets for a chance to win a grand prize of a life-sized Pac-Man arcade game or one of 10 secondary prizes of a Ghost Bluetooth wireless speaker and a $50 iTunes card. The deadline for entering the Pac-Man second-chance drawing is noon April 12. Winners will be announced April 15.