A man in need of some charcoal for an outdoor cookout has won GBP 248,000 after he bought an instant ticket at the store.

Retiree Thomas Kirsch from the city of Norfolk, in Virginia State, USA, was reportedly preparing for a nice barbecue gathering with friends when he realised that he had no charcoal.

In order to purchase some he then headed to the nearby Food Lion at 2401 Colley Avenue grocery store where he saw Virginia Lottery’s Jumbo Cash instant tickets on display and decided to buy one.

But he ended up amazed when the scratch-off unravelled a USD 300,000 (GBP 248,000) top prize.

Thomas said in a statement obtained by Newsflash from Virginia Lottery on Tuesday, 21st February: “I’m so excited! We just couldn’t believe it!”

He then arrived at Virginia Lottery headquarters in the city of Richmond and collected his money on Monday, 30th January.

When asked by lottery officials how his gathering went, he said: “It was great! The rain stopped just in time.”

Lottery officials revealed that he was the first top prize winner of the Jumbo Cash game, with two more top prize remaining to be claimed.

They said: “The chances of winning the top prize are 1 in 816,000. The chances of winning any prize in this game are 1 in 3.79.

“All Virginia Lottery profits go to K-12 education in Virginia.

“Mr Kirsch lives in Norfolk, which received more than USD 31.4 million [GBP 26 million] in Lottery funds for K-12 education last fiscal year.

“In Fiscal Year 2022, the Lottery raised more than USD 779 million [GBP 644,5 million] for K-12 education, making up approximately 10 percent of Virginia’s total K-12 school budget.”