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Woodstock father of 2 grabs $5 million Georgia Lottery prize

ATLANTA — A Woodstock father of two has netted a $5 million Georgia Lottery prize. Gregg Barnes, 50, won his top prize playing the instant game Millionaire Jumbo Bucks.

Barnes claimed his prize Monday at the Georgia Lottery District Office in Duluth.

Food Mart, 3083 Breckinridge Blvd. in Duluth, sold the winning ticket.

Barnes, a manager for a printing company, purchased it while on his lunch break.

“I scratched it in my car and said, ‘What!’ I thought that I was seeing things,” he said. “It hasn’t sunk in yet.”

The lucky winner is excited about his windfall but has yet to make any plans.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has returned more than $14.6 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs, including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program. More than 1.6 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1.2 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.