Jose Felix Arias of Charlotte and his wife, Lucrecia, said they plan to make their dream of owning investment property come true after winning a $200,000 lottery prize.

“We already have a down payment for a rental home,” Felix Arias said. “This will make things a lot easier.”

Felix Arias’ good luck happened when he stopped by the Speedway Xpress Mart on Morehead Road in Concord and got a $5 Cash Vault scratch-off ticket for his wife. The print factory supervisor left the ticket on the kitchen counter and went to work.

“I get tickets for my wife all the time,” Felix Arias said. “But this time it was different. Something just said, ‘She’s going to call me at work.’”

Sure enough, his wife called shortly after.

“I couldn’t wait for him to get home from work,” Lucrecia explained. “I was so excited when I saw it. I called him and asked him if he was sitting down.”

Then she told him they’d won $200,000.

“I was just like, ‘Wow,’” Felix Arias said. “I told her, ‘I guess we’re going to Raleigh.’”

They claimed the prize Friday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $141,003.

Cash Vault launched in May with five top prizes of $200,000. Two top prizes remain.

Ticket sales from games like Cash Vault make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $600 million a year for education. For details on how over $54.9 million raised by the lottery supported education programs in Mecklenburg County last year, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website, https://www.nclottery.com.