Until a ticket is matched in a drawing or scratched by a player, nobody knows where good luck will show up playing the lottery. As luck would have it, this week's three biggest wins all happen to belong to players who live in counties bordering neighboring states.
We'll start in Gates County, which borders Virginia in Northeast North Carolina. That's where Larry Weikert of Corapeake hit the jackpot for $137,263. He won half of Tuesday's $274,526 Carolina Cash 5 jackpot. The other winning ticket for the drawing, also worth $137,263, was sold on the other side of the state in Mitchell County. That ticketholder, who has yet to come forward, purchased the ticket at the Ingles on Greenwood Road in Spruce Pine.
About an hour and half from Spruce Pine, among the Blue Ridge Mountains of Haywood County and Tennessee, a pipe fitter from Canton scratched off $100,000 playing Mega Bucks. “It was hard to believe,” said Fisher at lottery headquarters. “It still is. I feel good.” He said he'll use the prize money to help pay for his son’s master’s degree.
Who would have predicted that, down on the South Carolina border, Tommy Spika of Laurinburg would win big playing the lottery? Tommy Spika, that's who. The Scotland County retiree bought a ticket for the $100,000 Crossword game in Lumberton and scratched it off at home. When he claimed his $100,000 winnings, he said he always knew he would scratch off a big prize.
Other big prizes were won or claimed this week. A player from San Antonio, Texas won $67,931 playing Carolina Cash 5 on the North Carolina Coast. Lavelle Brown bought the winning ticket for the April 10 drawing at the Kerr Drug on North Howe Street in Southport in Brunswick County.
You've got to love this one. The $50,000-winning ticket for the April 19 Cash 5 drawing was sold at -where else? - but Winners Food Mart on North Madison Boulevard in Roxboro in Person County.
Here's another one you don't see every day. Two tickets from Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing matched four white balls and the Mega Ball. That's not so unusual, but here's where it gets interesting: They were both sold at The Poor Boy General Store & Grill on Poor Boy Farm Road in Knightdale.
We're also waiting to find out who won each of two $10,000 prizes in recent Powerball drawings. A ticket for the April 13 drawing was sold at Fast Phil's on Brawley School Road in Mooresville. The other ticket, for the April 17 drawing, was sold at the Pop Shoppe on Battleground Avenue in Greensboro.
Besides the six-figure scratch-off wins mentioned above, nine other players won big prizes instantly. They are:
- Roderick Hall of Wilmington ($75,000 - Lady Bucks)
- Artis Allen of Henderson ($50,000 - Blue Diamond Bingo)
- Thelmea Hunt of Havelock ($50,000 - 20X The Money)
- Wayne Luffman of Ronda ($50,000 - Junior Big Ol’ Bucks)
- Daisy Mack of Jamestown ($50,000 - Junior Big Ol’ Bucks)
- Diane Clark of Newland ($20,000 - $4,000,000 Gold Bullion)
- Jody Lail of Newton ($10,000 - $200,000 a Year for Life)
- Gail Mann of Trinity ($10,000 - Hot Streak)
- Jason Triplett of Kernersville ($10,000 - Holiday Millions)
In all, players scratched off $14.3 million in prizes this week. Draw game players for the games Pick 3, Pick 4, Cash 5, Mega Millions, and Powerball won $5.1 million.
This week's in the books. We hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend. See you next time here in the Lucke-Zone.
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