Gary Lewis of Clyde didn’t get the scratch-off ticket he wanted when he stopped at a convenience store to play the lottery, but he did find a 100X the Cash ticket with a $100,000 prize.

“It’s a good thing they were sold out!” he said.

Last week, Lewis purchased his winning $20 ticket from the Single Stop Clyde on Carolina Boulevard in Clyde.

Later that day, when he scratched the ticket, he almost couldn’t trust what his eyes were seeing.

“I looked at it like, ‘Is that $1,000?’” recalled Lewis. “But then I looked again and I said, ‘No, that’s $100,000!’ It surprised me.”

He claimed his prize Monday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh and took home $70,756 after required federal and state tax withholdings.

“I’ll just help my family out and pay a few bills,” said Lewis of the prize money.

Ticket sales from scratch-offs like 100X the Cash make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $725 million per year for education. For details on how $2.9 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Haywood County last year, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.