Douglass Crews of Columbus said he carried around a winning $100,000 Powerball ticket for four days and didn’t even realize it.
Crews said he normally doesn’t play Powerball, but on Wednesday he passed by Deb’s Mini Mart on N.C. 9 South in Columbus and decided to get a ticket.
“I was just in the mood,” Crews said. “I’ve only played Powerball a handful of times, but when I saw how high the jackpot was, I figured why not?”
The plumber put the ticket in his wallet and forgot about it until four days later.
“I started shaking when I realized I won,” Crews said.
He claimed the prize Tuesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $70,751. He plans to use some of the money to pay bills.
His $3 Power Play ticket matched numbers on four of the white balls and the Powerball to win $50,000. It doubled when the 2X multiplier was drawn. The ticket beat odds of one in 913,129. The jackpot for Wednesday’s Powerball drawing is $40 million or $28.6 million cash.
Ticket sales from draw games like Powerball make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $700 million a year for education. For details on how lottery funds made a difference in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties last year, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.
Login to leave a comment.