Here in North Carolina, we have a March tradition of celebrating the excitement of the college basketball tournament – especially the surprise wins. So with the “madness” officially underway, it is only fitting that lottery players beat the odds and scored some big wins this week, too.
We’ll start with Larry Holmes, a textile worker from Grover in Cleveland County, who scratched off the top prize playing the $1,000 a Week for Life! game. “I scratched it off at home and just started hollering and jumping for joy,” he said. “I never thought I’d win something like this. I feel fantastic.”
Not far away in Union County, a poultry farmer from Marshville stopped at a store in Matthews with his friends to buy a Color of Money ticket. Gersain Gomez Perez scratched it off in the car. “I said to my friends, ‘Can you check this? I think I won $1 million!’” he recalled. “They were excited. To this moment I still can’t believe it.”
Much further to the east in Lee County, Vickie Richmond won $1 million playing the $120 Million Cash game. The quality control officer from Sanford was stunned when she scratched off the ticket and saw the $1 million prize. “I almost hit the floor when I saw I had won. I kept looking at it to see if it was really real,” she recalled. “My life changed overnight.”
Other lucky headlines this week are:
Wilmington woman wins $250,000 lottery prize: Linda Rice is the latest player to win the top prize in the $250,000 Cash Money game.
Harnett County man to save $235,541 Cash 5 prize for the future: “It really is hard to believe,” Tracy Sheils said. “We checked and double-checked the numbers on the phone, the TV and the computer. Then we triple-checked.”
Two-time winner claims $150,000 ‘pot o’ gold’ on St. Patrick’s Day: Some might say Tony Summerlin has “the luck of the Irish.” After winning $100,000 in July of 2012, the Granite Falls man claimed a $150,000 prize on Monday. Summerlin won playing a $5 Green & Gold ticket.
Parent’s advice leads to $149,227 Cash 5 win for son visiting from Florida: Mauro Oliveira, a health insurance manager from Miami Lakes in Florida, says he plans to take a trip after winning the Feb. 22 jackpot. The winning Quick Pick ticket was purchased at the Harris Teeter on N.C. 55 in Cary (Wake County).
There’s more. Toward the western tip of North Carolina in Transylvania County, someone played Cash 5 and hit the jackpot. A lucky ticket worth $344,602 in Thursday’s drawing was sold at the One Stop on the New Hendersonville Highway in Pisgah Forest. We’re looking forward to meeting the winner.
Several Powerball players won or claimed big prizes recently. A $1 million-winning ticket for the March 15 drawing was sold at the Dolphins store on Commons Hill Drive in Cary. In the same drawing, Billy Suggs of Winterville (Pitt County) Power Played his way to $40,000.
A pair of Powerball players won $20,000 each in the March 5 drawing. Earnest Johnson of Winston-Salem and David Strickland of Goldsboro (Wayne County) collected their winnings this week.
A $10,000 Powerball prize won in Wednesday’s drawing is unclaimed. The winning ticket was sold at the Cubbard Express on 2nd Street Northeast in Hickory (Catawba County).
Eleven more players scratched their way to $10,000 prizes. They are:
- Thomas Bryson of Sylva ($4,000,000 Multiplier Spectacular)
- Hayes Clemons of Indian Trail ($5,000 a Week for Life!)
- Melissa Gaspers of Gibsonville ($4,000,000 Multiplier Spectacular)
- James Hearne of Rocky Mount ($200,000 Grant)
- Hannah Jones of Maxton ($4,000,000 Multiplier Spectacular)
- Thomas Miller of Raleigh ($120 Million Cash)
- Ronnie Riggs of Cove City ($4,000,000 Multiplier Spectacular)
- Kathleen Sternberg of Newton ($120 Million Cash)
- Kenneth Stone of Hurdle Mills ($200,000 Extreme Cash)
- Joshua Weaver of Angier ($4,000,000 Multiplier Spectacular)
- Michael Wilson of Raleigh ($4,000,000 Multiplier Spectacular)
Last but not least, Shipery Stukes of Thomasville won $20,000 playing $4,000,000 Multiplier Spectacular, and Sharonda Dudley of Dunn scratched off the top prize on a $40,000 Bankroll ticket.
In all, players statewide scratched and matched their way to $25.4 million in prizes this week. Until next time, good luck with your tournament brackets – or your next lottery ticket. See you soon here in the Lucke-Zone.
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