What would you do if you won the lottery? Would you split it with anyone? Well, one man from Menomonie, Wisconsin, won a $22 million jackpot but did not take it all home himself. Instead, he kept a decades-old promise, even if it cost him half of his winnings…
Best Friends For Life
Seniors Tom Cook and Joseph Feeney have been best friends for going on four decades now. Back in the ’80s, the two met at a local restaurant never thinking their chance encounter would turn into something so extrodinary. However, Cook and Feeney became quick friends. Soon enough, they were even traveling to places like Niagara Falls, Yellowstone, and the Football Hall of Fame together!
However, the peak of Cook and Feeney’s incredible friendship came in 1992, though they didn’t know it at the time. That summer, the friends promised each other to split the jackpot if ever won the lottery. Of course, at the time, neither ever thought it was possible. Still, that did not stop the two young men from fantasizing what they would do if they won. From retiring early to traveling the world, they talked about everything.
Then, as so often happens, life intervened. Over the years, Cook and Feeney went their separate ways, though they still keep in regular contact via phone, email, and social media. Since the summer of ’92, neither Cook nor Feeney though much of their lottery promise. That is, until this year, when Cook had a very good reason to recall the promise…
Checking The Lottery Numbers
When Cook watched the drawing of the Wisconsin Powerball, worth a whopping $22 million, he could not believe what he saw. “I said to my wife when he got back to the table, ‘You read this.’ She looked at it and said, ‘Oh my God.’ She handed it to somebody else and said, ‘Can you read those numbers for us?’” Cook explained. The friend who checked the numbers for them and read it out, said to the Cook couple, “It looks like you guys won the Powerball.”
Tom Cook could not believe it! In the blink of an eye, he had become a multi-millionaire! That’s when his old promise to Joseph Feeney popped back into his head. Incredibly, Cook decided to keep his word. As you might imagine, Feeney had a hard time believing it at first…
“Are You Jerking My Bobber?”
When Feeney received the call from Cook, he could barely believe the words he head. “He called me, and I said, ‘are you jerking my bobber?’” he later recalled. After all, the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in about 292 million, meaning you’re more likely to be hit by lightning. However, the odds were only one thing. That Cook had remembered the promise was a whole other ordeal!
So, what are their plans? Well, they decided to take the lump cash. After the taxes, their $16.7 million turned into around $5.7 million for each friend. Feeney already retired before hitting the jackpot, so he just plans to stay home and enjoy some time with the family. Cook, on the other hand, decided to retire after the win. Both of them want to travel as soon as it’s possible as they can’t do so now, amid coronavirus.
“We can pursue what we feel comfortable with. I can’t think of a better way to retire,” Cook said. “We both grew up with not a lot of money, so this is really something special,” Feeney said.