James Lunsford of Jamestown got lucky winning $500K with a number 13 scratch-off ticket.

Lunsford stopped by Lake Cumberland Country Store in Jamestown Wednesday morning and bought a $20 Kentucky Lottery $75 Million Cash Blowout scratch-off ticket.

“It was ticket number 13,” Lunsford said.

He sat down at a nearby table and began scratching off the ticket.

“I scratched off the number 38 and the prize amount underneath it was $50,000. I kept scratching and saw ten of them,” Lunsford said. “It’s hard to believe. I was just looking for a $100 winner but never expected this.”

Tara Coppler, Lake Cumberland Country Store clerk, said she’s known Lunsford most of her life as a hardworking stone mason that lives a simple life.  

She said Lunsford built a fire place in her house from creek rock he gathered himself.

“Jimmy’s a really deserving guy,” said Coppler. “You just couldn’t ask for a better person.”

Lunsford, one of 17 siblings, drove to lottery headquarters in Louisville with two of his sisters, Dorothy Rose and Kathy Rhineheimer.

He split his winnings fifty, fifty with his sister Dorothy. Each received a check for $172,500 after taxes.

“I asked Jimmy what he was going to buy with the money,” said Mark Von Fumetti, owner of Lake Cumberland Country Store. “He said, ‘I’m going to buy a new mortar mixer, a wheel barrel, and some cement’.”

Von Fumetti said people came down to the store to celebrate Lunsford’s win long after he left to go to lottery headquarters in Louisville.

“He’s such a good guy,” Coppler said. “We’ve all been excited for Jimmy. It’s just like we had won.”