Big lottery win leaves man crying and dancing through NC store aisles. ‘I lost it’

If ever a man had an excuse to act a little crazy in public, it would be after winning the lottery, and that’s just what happened recently at the Tobacco Barn in Kings Mountain.

Sidney Brown says he bought a $25 Extreme Cash lottery ticket at the store and didn’t hesitate to start scratching it, according to a news release from the North Carolina Education Lottery.

The ticket proved to be worth $100,000, launching Brown into a fit of celebration at the store on North Cleveland Avenue, the release said. Kings Mountain is about 25 miles west of Charlotte.

“I lost it,” Brown said in the release. “I started crying immediately, running around the store, breakdancing. Whatever you want to call it, I was doing it. All I could think about was that I could do everything I finally wanted to do.”

Brown beat odds of 1 in 588,000 to win the prize, according to the lottery’s website. The game has 10 prizes of $100,000. That’s significantly less than the game’s top prize of $1 million, but Brown didn’t seem to mind.

He collected his prize Monday and it came to $70,757 after federal and state taxes, officials said.

Brown says he has continued to cry off and on since winning. He also has a growing list of things he plans to do with the money, including helping old friends who supported him with no expectation of getting anything in return.

“I’ve wanted to get me a house, and buy a little piece of land,” he said in the release.

“I want to give back to the church that my family grew up in. Just take care of my closest family and friends that always looked out for me ever since I was young.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Big lottery win leaves man crying and dancing through NC store aisles. ‘I lost it’."