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Homeless Man Who Won Lottery Promises To Share The Wealth

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Apr 5, 2013 4:40PM

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Dennis Mahurin has been homeless since 1978.
The Bloomington, Ill., man who lives in a tent and won $50,000 in the lottery plans to share the wealth with other homeless and continue living in a tent.

"With all the other homeless people around here, I've made up my mind,” Dennis Mahurin told CI News Now. “I'm gonna give them each $100."

Mahurin, who has been homeless since 1978, will have $35,000 left after taxes, which he plans to use for dental work, a trip to visit his son and maybe a new tent. The rest goes into savings.

"I'm living in a tent, happy as can be in my nature," he said.

Mahurin cashed in his $1 scratch-off ticket at the local Circle K, and a DeKalb pastor in line behind him saw Mahurin win and told Tribune columnist John Kass about it.

"I scratched it off right here in my tent,” Mahurin told CI News Now. “I thought it was a thousand dollars. She said, 'Nope.' I said, 'Oh, I messed up didn't?' She said it was fifty thousand, and I almost fell over."

Watch the video below where Mahurin turns things around on a local newscaster by asking what he'd do with the money.