He thought his luck ‘couldn’t get any worse.’ Then NC lottery ticket turned it around
A football fan was faced with a tough loss — then a North Carolina lottery ticket turned his luck around.
Jacob Strickland was rooting for the Clemson University Tigers when the South Carolina school’s football team started to crumble on Nov. 5.
“We were watching football with some friends and Clemson was getting beat terribly by Notre Dame,” Strickland said in a news release. “We were joking we should get lottery tickets because our luck couldn’t get any worse.”
That’s when Strickland decided to play the Powerball game. He bought an online ticket on Nov. 5, when the estimated jackpot prize was more than $1.5 billion, McClatchy News reported.
“It really was a last-minute thing right before the drawing,” Strickland, a 29-year-old welder, told the N.C. Education Lottery.
That 11th-hour decision paid off when Strickland’s ticket matched enough numbers to be worth $150,000. After the win, Strickland said he shared the good news with his mom and game-watching buddies, who didn’t believe he had scored the six-figure prize.
“It was just a day of disbelief because I’ve never won anything before,” Strickland told lottery officials.
The prize winner is from Asheboro, home to the North Carolina Zoo and roughly 70 miles west of Raleigh. He kept $106,516 after taxes and hopes to invest and save the extra cash, officials said.
It’s not the first time that a North Carolina lottery player’s luck took a turn.
In May, officials said a woman who thought her ticket was worthless scored big on Friday the 13th. The year before, a man ran into two deer before he discovered his ticket was worth $2 million, McClatchy News reported.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhen gambling is more than a game
Gambling is designed to be a source of entertainment.
If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.
This story was originally published November 16, 2022 at 11:40 AM with the headline "He thought his luck ‘couldn’t get any worse.’ Then NC lottery ticket turned it around."
