Lottery player ‘could barely control herself’ after huge NC win. ‘I fell to the floor’
A North Carolina woman checked her lottery ticket — and “could barely control herself” when she discovered how much it was worth.
“I fell to the floor,” Loretta Jones told the N.C. Education Lottery. “I had to ask my daughter if it was real.”
Jones realized her $2 million prize was the real deal, and now she plans to go on a trip that she’s long wished for.
“My dream vacation has always been Hawaii,” she said in an Oct. 10 news release. “I want to take that trip now.”
Jones scored her big prize after she tried her luck at the Short Stop Mart in Maxton, about a 100-mile drive southwest of Raleigh. At the store, she bought a ticket for the $100 Million Mega Cash scratch-off ticket game, lottery officials said.
It turns out, the ticket Jones bought for $20 was worth much more.
“I saw the dollar sign and thought, ‘Oh I won my $20 back,’” she said. “Then I looked at it again and I started screaming.”
Jones, who is from Robeson County, took her prize in a $1.2 million lump sum and kept $855,006 after taxes. In addition to traveling, she said she wants to put her prize money toward bills.
It’s not the first time a jackpot win left a North Carolina lottery player screaming in excitement. In 2020, officials said a woman checked a lottery ticket on the side of a highway and started shouting.
This story was originally published October 10, 2023 at 3:27 PM with the headline "Lottery player ‘could barely control herself’ after huge NC win. ‘I fell to the floor’."
