BATON ROUGE – Charles Walker of Alexandria received a big surprise after taking his Louisiana Lottery Lotto ticket for the Dec. 14 drawing to a local retailer to be validated.

“The clerk scanned my ticket and told me that I needed to bring it to the Lottery office in Baton Rouge,” said Walker. “I knew that had to be a good thing and really just couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that my ticket won the jackpot!”

The 69-year-old’s winning ticket matched all six numbers to win the $300,000 Lotto jackpot prize, which he claimed Monday at Louisiana Lottery headquarters. The winning numbers were 01-10-15-32-34-39.

Walker received $213,000 after state and federal tax withholdings. While he has no specific plans to treat himself with the winnings, he does plan to make a donation to his church and share some with family members and friends.

Walker said, “I’m always helping people out and knew by doing so that one day it would come back to me in a very good way!”

The winning ticket was sold at Wilmore’s Food Mart on MacArthur Drive in Alexandria. The store received a one-time selling bonus of $3,000, which is 1% of the jackpot prize.               

Lottery ticket purchasers must be at least 21 years of age. Draw-style game tickets must be claimed within 180 days of the drawing. Anyone who may have a gambling problem or friends and family of anyone with a gambling problem should call toll free 1-877-770-7867 for help.

For security purposes, the Lottery strongly encourages players to sign the back of their tickets immediately after purchasing. More information about Lotto and other jackpot winners can be found on the Lottery’s website, www.louisianalottery.com/lotto.