RALEIGH – A series of unplanned stops put a lottery ticket worth $150,000 in Joe Gunter’s hands. And just before he scratched it off, he almost gave it away.

Gunter, a construction supervisor from Laurel Mississippi, is only in North Carolina in the first place to build a pipeline. At a 6 a.m. meeting Saturday, Gunter was asked to add another task to his team’s list: Put up a safety fence at another location.

“It was the first detour of the journey,” Gunter said Tuesday morning at lottery headquarters. “All I had to do was not take any of these steps and I never would have got that ticket.”

Returning to resume work on the pipeline, serendipity – and thirst – led Gunter to the store where he bought his winning ticket: 211 Lucky Stop on Aberdeen Road in Raeford.

“I said to myself, ‘I sure would like a 6 oz. Coke,’” Gunter recalled. “Something told me to stop at that store.”

There, Gunter bought five $5 lottery tickets. He gave one to each member of his crew and kept one for himself.

“I’m scratching and I see a ‘1’ and I’m thinking, $10,” Gunter said. “I keep scratching and the zeroes kept coming.”

Gunter called his wife to share the news that he won $150,000 and they cried together. Gunter said his after-tax winnings of $103,876 would help pay for the couple’s three daughters, ages 11, 5 and 2, to go to college.

“I have a really good job,” Gunter added. “I feel like this is meant for me to put it to good use. I don’t know that reason yet but I think I will.”

With his win, one top prize of $150,000 remains to be claimed in the Golden 7’s game.

Gunter is the second lottery player in a week to scratch off a big win in Hoke County. Friday, a couple from Raeford won $750,000 playing Jumbo Bucks.

Ticket sales made it possible for the lottery to raise more than half a billion dollars for the state last year. For details on how $21.9 million in lottery funds have made a difference in Hoke County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” tab on the lottery’s website.