‘Honey, how much do you love me?’ SC man asks wife after winning lottery jackpot
A Midlands man was so overcome with emotion after winning a six-figure lottery jackpot, the clerk at the store where he bought the ticket wanted to be sure he was alright.
After discovering he had won $200,000, the man’s hands were shaking so bad the clerk at the Lexington County gas station/convenience store asked if he was OK, South Carolina Education Lottery officials said Thursday in a news release.
He did his best to show the clerk the winning ticket before he left the store to call his wife, according to the release.
The man might not have fully recovered from the shock of seeing his prize, and lottery officials said when his wife answered the phone all he could say was, “Honey, how much do you love me?”
She was confused, so he took a picture of the winning ticket and texted her the photo, according to the release.
How she reacted to the good news was not known. But the man eventually regained enough composure to take a long view of hitting the jackpot.
“It was my time,” the man said to lottery officials.
The couple’s names were not released because South Carolina is one of eight states — along with Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio and Texas — that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous.
The winners said they are planning to use the money from their windfall to make some home improvements, according to the release.
The winning scratch-off game was bought for $5 at the Hillview Truck Stop on Ben Franklin Road, officials said. That’s in Leesville, near Exit 39 on Interstate 20 which is the junction with U.S. 178/Fairview Road.
The gas station/convenience store received a commission of $2,000 for selling the claimed winning ticket, according to the release.
Lottery officials said the odds of winning $200,000 in Win Big were 1-in-660,000, and two top prizes remain unclaimed.
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This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 10:08 AM.
