For Micky Simons of Richlands, 2015 is wrapping up with a bang after he won $100,000 from a Millionaire 7’s scratch-off ticket.

Simons, who’s been in the Marine Corps for more than 25 years, didn’t realize he’d won when he scratched off the $10 ticket. He took it back to the store where he bought it, the WilcoHess on Richlands Highway in Jacksonville, and asked the clerk to check it.

“When she started screaming, that’s when I knew I won,” Simons said.

Simons brought his family with him to Raleigh to claim the prize at lottery headquarters on New Year’s Eve.

Simons said his wife Lasha was initially upset the night he bought the ticket, because it made him late for dinner. Then he showed her his winning ticket.

“I didn’t believe it until now,” she said.

After required state and federal tax withholdings, Simons received $69,253. He said the prize money will help his family achieve their goal of being debt-free before he retires from the Marines in 2017. They also plan to take a vacation.

Millionaire 7’s launched in April of 2014. Two top prizes of $1 million remain as well as one prize of $100,000.

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 over $67.3 million in lottery funds have made a difference in Onslow County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” section of the lottery’s website.