Izizzi Millions jackpot ‘a blessing’ for St Mary landscaper

For years, D. Mitchell has been picking up odd jobs like climbing trees, picking coconuts or ackees, and cutting the grass for various people in his Sandside community. It started his foray into a landscaping career in the nearby housing schemes.

He was on of his usual hustle one Friday morning in February when he decided to stop at Highway Fast Food Restaurant, an Izizzi Lottery agent in St Mary, where he spent $200 on the gaming box. As fate would have it, Lady Luck smiled on him that day.

Mitchell first won $68,000.

"Mi cash out, pay up mi likkle bills dem and mi feel nice! But then mi go back again that same evening and put $1,000 on the box and lose. Suh mi put another $1,000, then mi see the finger pon the screen start to point and the girl say, 'Look, you win,'" Mitchell related.

"Me run out same time and start one bagga excitement. Mi happy suh til all the next day mi bawl the living eyewater. Something like dis never happen to mi yet," he added.

Just like that, the 37-year-old St Mary native became the fourth Izizzi Millions Jackpot winner, walking away with $2,961,293.

He has not stopped smiling and has vowed to turn his landscaping hustle into a small business.

"Mi ah go push mi ting further now. Mi ah go buy about three more machine, get a likkle ride to carry me around, and hire couple people to help me," he said.

Since picking up his millions at the official cheque handover at Izizzi's Balmoral Avenue headquarters in Kingston, Mitchell has purchased a car not only to get around, but especially to get started on his business ideas.

The eager Mitchell said that, after a lifetime of 'having things hard', losing his adoptive parents at a young age, then dropping out of high school with nothing and no place for himself, he plans to manage his winnings with a level head. As for family, his main priority is his 11-year-old daughter and he is investing some of the winnings towards her future.

"Mi ah my owna boss now and I still doing my landscaping business. But, once the car come in, I going to bottle and sell coconut water as well. Everything ah come together. When you look pon it, one time mi used to go out on the road every day, early morning to hustle for me and my daughter, but now mi nuh haffi do it so hard again. Mi do it same way, but this make all the difference for me," Mitchell said.