RALEIGH – Carrie Dixon’s biggest Christmas present this year wasn’t delivered by St. Nick – it came courtesy of the Joker.

Dixon, a hospital housekeeper from Wilmington, was at the A&J Food Mart on Princess Place in Wilmington on the day after Christmas when she decided to try her luck on a $5 Joker’s Wild ticket. While at the store, Dixon scratched it off – and revealed a “Joker” symbol above one of the prizes.

“I saw the Joker up there, so I knew I’d won some money,” she recalled. “But I didn’t know how much.”

Dixon asked the clerk to scan the ticket for her. When the lottery jingle played and the screen said to claim at the lottery, she realized she must have won a lot more. When that amount turned out to be the top prize of $150,000, Dixon said she was elated.

“I started running around in a circle,” she recalled.

Dixon, a North Carolina native, said that her after-tax winnings of $103,801 would allow her to do some home repairs and pay off her mortgage.

Two more $150,000 prizes – and many other prizes – remain to be claimed in the Joker’s Wild game.

Ticket sales made it possible for the lottery to raise more than half a billion for the state last year. For details on how lottery funds have made a difference for specific education programs across North Carolina and in New Hanover County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” tab on the lottery’s website.