Ford Worker Wins Lottery as Plant Closes, A worker at the Ford Motor Co. Atlanta Assembly Plant won $225,000 from a Georgia Lottery scratch-off ticket as he was headed to work for the last time, the day production ended at the plant.

Jerome McInnis said he plans to invest most of his winnings and the prize "will enable me to take care of everything."

Jerome McInnis, 52, of College Park, Ga., bought a $5 instant game ticket Friday morning when he stopped for gas at US Amoco in College Park.

In a statement issued by the Georgia Lottery Corp., McInnis said he was so excited when he won the prize, he drove off without putting gas in his tank even though he had paid for the gas.

The 13-year employee of the Hapeville, Ga., plant won the first of six top prizes in the "Bah Humbucks" instant game, the lottery statement said.

McInnis said he had opted to take an early retirement package after Ford announced in January that it would idle the plant. About 1,950 employees lost their jobs and were given their choice of one of eight kinds of severance package when the plant ceased production of the Ford Taurus sedan Friday morning.

"This came at a great time. It's just exciting to win like this," he said in a statement. McInnis was not immediately available to be interviewed Friday because he was still working at the plant for his last day, said lottery spokesman J.B. Landroche.

McInnis said in the statement he plans to invest most of his winnings and the prize "will enable me to take care of everything."

The Atlanta Assembly Plant had been producing cars since 1947. In the last five years it was ranked as one of the company's top 10 most productive assembly lines in North America. Friday's milestone concluded 21 years of producing the popular sedan, with sales of more than 7 million vehicles.