Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas is crediting a homeless man after winning $300,000 in the Powerball lottery. Arenas plays the same numbers every week and gets his ticket from the same gas station. Last week, he was in a rush to play his numbers before the deadline but realized he needed to get gas first.
He rushed to the nearest gas station and planned to put $10 of gas in his car. As he was filling up the tank, a homeless man approached and asked for money. Arenas explained he was in a rush to get to a different gas station to buy his Powerball tickets.
He said that he only had $10 and needed it to drive to Thousand Oaks, which was 16 minutes away. In reality, Arenas wrote on Instagram that he didn't have to go that far and was just lying to get the man to leave him alone. He started to feel guilty and offered the man $5, but he refused, telling Arenas he needed to put that ten dollars of gas into his tank so he could play his lottery numbers.
Arenas tried to give the man $5, but he again refused and told Arenas to return with $20 if he won the lottery.
After all that, Arenas finally made it to the gas station where he usually buys tickets only to find it had closed early. The next morning, Arenas woke up to a text message saying he won the Powerball.
He thought it was a scam at first, but it turned out that the gas station clerk bought a Powerball ticket for Arenas using the numbers he usually plays.
Arenas went back to the gas station and told the homeless man the good news. Arenas gave him more than $20, though he did not say precisely how much he gave him.
"I pulled up on my guy yesterday and gave him his cut (for his safety) won't say the number 🤐he jumped up and hugged me for 5 mins crying and then started to pray💯 I've given back to the homeless BUT never was blessed by one 🙏🏾😇 his good hearted gesture of me making it back home blessed that ticket," Arenas wrote on Instagram.