A birthday trip to the store to get his daughter’s first lottery ticket turned into a $1 million Powerball win for Toolsie Ratiram of Cornelius.
To celebrate her birthday, Ratiram and his daughter went to the Food Lion on North Main Street and each bought a $2 Quick Pick ticket for the Powerball drawing on Feb. 24.
Ratiram didn’t check his ticket until Tuesday when he went back to the Food Lion to buy a bag of brown sugar. When the clerk told him he won $1 million dollars, he couldn’t believe it.
“I’m not that lucky,” Ratiram told the clerk, “Don’t play with me.”
When the clerk assured him it wasn’t a joke he replied, “I guess now I can get the really expensive brown sugar.”
On his way home Ratiram picked up a dozen roses to tell his wife.
“At first she didn’t believe me and thought something was wrong,” Ratiram said. “Once she realized I was serious, her jaw just dropped.”
After telling his wife, they went to their daughter’s work to share the news that her birthday outing turned into a lucky one.
“I feel like a million bucks,” Ratiram said as he claimed his prize Thursday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he received $692,500. He plans to use the money to go on a family vacation and help his daughter become a doctor.
To win $1 million, Ratiram matched all five white balls. The odds of winning a $1 million prize are one in 11.6 million.
Ticket sales from games like Powerball made it possible for the lottery to raise more than half a billion dollars for the state last year. For details on how over $352.6 million in lottery funds has made a difference in Mecklenburg County, click on the “For Education” section of the lottery’s website.