A stop for groceries turned Joshua Whitley of Burlington into the first winner of a Super 7s $200,000 top prize.
On Monday, Whitley stopped at the Food Lion on Ramada Road in Burlington for groceries and tried his luck on a few lottery tickets.
After the store, he took his tickets back to the house where he scratched them one by one, saving his two $5 Super 7s tickets for last.
“My mom was beside me and I started scratching the numbers off,” recalled Whitley. “It was a 2, a 0 and a 0, and I was like, ‘I won $200!’ and then I saw another comma behind and just kinda did a little Ric Flair ‘Woo!’ about 27 times. I feel very fortunate.”
Whitley, who works as a tile setter, claimed his prize Friday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required federal and state tax withholdings he took home $141,501.
“It still doesn’t even feel real,” said Whitley. “I think the house is in need of a new air conditioning system but I’m planning on saving as much as I can.” He says he also may look into replacing his 30-year-old truck with “something new.”
Super 7s launched this month with five top prizes of $200,000. Four remain to be won.
Ticket sales from scratch-off games like Super 7s help the lottery raise more than $700 million a year for education. For details on how $9.2 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Alamance County last year, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section, or watch this story on how those funds helped repair an Alamance County elementary school.