Patrick Willard of Thomasville is looking forward to early retirement after he won a $250,000 lottery prize.

“This is such a blessing,” Willard said. “This will let me retire in September. Then I can really start enjoying life.”

Willard, a truck driver, bought the winning Carolina Black scratch-off ticket Monday night when he stopped for gas at the Sheetz on Liberty Drive in Thomasville.

“I knew it was going to be cold this morning so I decided to go after work,” Willard said. “Can you imagine what would have happened if I waited until this morning? Someone else would have gotten the ticket.”

Willard pre-paid for his gas and then scratched the ticket while he was still in the store.

“I almost forgot to pump the gas I was so excited,” Willard said. “I showed it to the clerk and said, ‘Tell me if it’s true. Did I really win $250,000?’”

He did win, and he claimed his prize Tuesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $176,876.

Ticket sales from games like Carolina Black make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $650 million a year for education. For details on how $9.6 million in lottery funds made a difference in Davidson County last year, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.