Atlanta man grabs $348K; 3rd Fantasy 5 win since ‘07

ATLANTA — One lucky Atlanta man recently has swept a vast Fantasy 5 jackpot prize along with two additional windfalls in 2007 and 2009. David Thomas, 60, matched all five numbers from the July 5 Fantasy 5 drawing, winning the $348,887 jackpot prize.

Thomas, who works for the city of Atlanta, claimed his prize earlier this month at Georgia Lottery headquarters in Atlanta.

“It was always there,” Thomas said of his decision to wait before claiming the prize. “It was a matter of when it was time to put it to use.”

Cleveland Food Mart, 890 Cleveland Ave. in East Point, sold the winning Quik Pik ticket.

In addition to his latest jackpot win, Thomas won $108,837 in 2009 and $154,111 in 2007 playing Fantasy 5.

“You can’t win if you don’t play,” Thomas explained. “I paid off bills with the first win. I helped family members with the second, and I plan on fixing up my house and buying a new car with this one.”

The lucky winner has no “secrets” to share to account for his good fortune.

“It’s about being in the right place at the right time,” Thomas shared.

Winning numbers from the July 5 Fantasy 5 drawing were: 6-8-9-30-38.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has returned more than $14.8 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 1.3 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.

WSBTV