Powerball player returned to store to check her ticket. The prize left her ‘shaking’
A Powerball player returned to a store to check her ticket — and got confirmation that she won big.
“The girl at the store told me, ‘You did it,’” prize winner Frances Pressley told the North Carolina Education Lottery in a Dec. 18 news release. “I was shaking as I walked back to my car.”
Pressley celebrated the life-changing win after she returned to Southmont Grocery, a roughly 35-mile drive south from Winston-Salem. At the Lexington-area store, she had tried her luck on a $3 Powerball ticket.
Pressley’s ticket missed the multi-million dollar jackpot but still matched all but one number picked in the Dec. 16 drawing. Since she spent an extra dollar on the Power Play option, her $50,000 prize rose to $100,000, McClatchy News reported.
When the lucky winner got home, she rushed to let her husband Gene know they were getting richer.
“I told him, ‘We’ve got good news,’” Pressley said. “We really needed it.”
Pressley, who lives in the Southmont area of Davidson County, kept $71,501 after taxes. Now, she hopes to pay bills and work on home projects.
“I’m really tickled over it,” Pressley told lottery officials.
It’s not the first time a lucky lottery player has returned to the store where they bought their ticket. In South Carolina, a man couldn’t believe he hit the jackpot, so he went back for a second opinion, McClatchy News reported in May.
What to know about Powerball
To score the jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.
The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.
Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.
Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This story was originally published December 18, 2024 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Powerball player returned to store to check her ticket. The prize left her ‘shaking’."
