Jeffrey Coleman, a truck driver from Thomasville, woke up Christmas morning to discover a gift of a lifetime – an email letting him know that he was a winner of $25,000 a Year for Life.
“I don’t normally play Lucky For Life,” said Coleman. “I just happened to buy three tickets right before the drawing closed – lucky feeling, I guess!”
One of the Christmas Eve Quick Pick tickets turned out to be quite the gift, matching all five white balls in the Christmas Eve drawing and winning the game’s second top prize of $25,000 a Year for Life. The odds of winning the prize are 1 in 1.8 million.
"I didn't believe it at first," said Coleman. "I thought maybe it was a mistake, so I logged off my account and went about my day. When I logged back on, it still said I was winner, so I knew something had to be going on.”
Coleman claimed his prize Tuesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. Winners are guaranteed $25,000 every year for life, or have the option of taking a lump sum. He chose the lump sum of $390,000. After required federal and state tax withholdings, he took home $275,926. Coleman says he plans on saving and investing his winnings.
Lucky for Life is one of four lottery games in North Carolina where players have the option of buying their tickets through Online Play either through the lottery’s website or with the NC Lottery Official Mobile App.
Tickets cost $2 and offers players 10 ways to win a prize.
Drawings are held on Monday and Thursday nights. The top prize is $1,000 A Day for Life.
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