Portia Opharrow of Greenville picked up a $200 lottery prize on Tuesday, decided to try her luck again with two Millionaire Bucks tickets, and ended up winning a $100,000 prize.
Opharrow stopped at the Food Lion on Red Banks Road in Greenville to claim a $200 prize she had won on a scratch-off ticket. “When I got my $200, something told me to go to the machine,” said Opharrow, so she purchased two $20 Millionaire Bucks scratch-offs.
“I was sitting in my car scratching and scratching and I saw all these 0’s” she said. Excited to share the news, she went to her sister’s house to verify her winning ticket. “I wanted to be able to make sure, ‘Am I seeing this right?’” she recalled. “And I just stood there and cried, cried, cried.”
Once the nervousness wore off, Opharrow said, “I’m rejoicing because I need some remodeling done. But I couldn’t afford it, and now I can do what I need to do without borrowing the money.”
Opharrow claimed her prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Wednesday. After federal and state taxes, she took home $70,756.
After some home renovations, Opharrow plans to pay off some bills and share the winnings with her son and daughter. “I’m just so excited,” she said.
Just because she’s a big winner now, Opharrow’s lottery days aren’t over yet. “I’m going to be a millionaire,” she said. “My mantra is, ‘If you’re not in it, you cannot win it.’” But, “make sure you pay your bills before you buy your tickets.”
Millionaire Bucks launched this month with four top prizes of $4 million and six $100,000 prizes. Four $4 million prizes and five $100,000 prizes remain to be won.
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