RALEIGH – Susan Carroll, an administrative assistant from Knightdale, was grocery shopping at the Food Lion on Wakelon Street in Zebulon Saturday when she decided to buy a $30 Ultimate Millions ticket from the self-service machine. It wasn’t until she got home that she realized she won $1 million.

“I did what I always do – put the groceries away,” Carroll said. “Then, when I scratched the ticket and saw the amount, I said, ‘That can’t be real.’”

But it was. Carroll called her husband, Ricky, to share the good news.

“I said, ‘Are you sitting down?’” she said. “I just wanted to tell you I think I won $1 million!”

A $1 million prize can be claimed as an annuity of $50,000 a year for 20 years or as a lump sum of $600,000. Carroll chose the cash option, worth $415,509 after required state and federal withholdings.

Ricky Carroll, retired from 35 years driving tractor trailers, said the couple would use the prize money to pay off their mortgage – and make automotive purchases.

“We had already been talking about getting a new car for her,” he said. “And I might buy a horse trailer.”

With the claim, 12 prizes of $1 million and three top prizes of $10 million – the largest scratch-off prize in North Carolina history – remain to be claimed.

Players who don’t win a prize instantly can enter their tickets online for a $1 million second-chance drawing. The first of three such drawings will be held Feb. 10 with a midnight, Jan. 31 entry deadline.

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 more than $330.9 million in lottery funds have made a difference in Wake County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” section of the lottery’s website.