Dean Glover of Littleton and Willard Weber of Louisburg tried their luck on some Ruby Red 7’s tickets and ended up splitting a $4 million top prize.

Glover and Weber, who have been coworkers at a welding company for over four years, purchased their tickets from Minit Chek on West Main Street in Littleton on Friday.

The next day, Weber had a store owner check the ticket for him.

“He told me I had to go to Raleigh,” said Weber. “I figured it was maybe $1,000 or $10,000, not what we had because that was ridiculous.”

After Weber discovered their good fortune, he called Glover.

“I told him I had some good news for him,” recalled Weber. “And he came right to my house after that,” said Glover.

The coworkers claimed their prize Tuesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh.

They had the choice of taking the $4 million as an annuity of $200,000 a year over 20 years, or a lump sum of $2.4 million. They chose to split the lump sum, each getting $1.2 million. After required federal and state tax withholdings, they each took home $849,003.

With his half of the prize money, Weber said, “It’s going in the bank. I’m planning on buying an antique convertible car. That’s my main goal.”

Glover says his portion of the winnings is “going into savings” for his retirement.

Ruby Red 7’s launched in January with four top prizes of $4 million and eight top prizes of $100,000. One $4 million top prize and three $100,000 prizes remain to be won.

Ticket sales from scratch-off games make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $725 million a year for education. For details on how lottery funds have made a difference in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.