‘We did it’: NC man won big in the lottery. His late wife was there ‘in spirit’
A North Carolina man promised his wife that one day he’d hit it big in the lottery, state lottery officials said Wednesday.
“We played the lottery together,” he told lottery officials of his now-deceased wife, according to a lottery news release. “And I always told her, ‘One day we’re gonna drive to Raleigh and pick up our money.’”
His day finally arrived.
In a Multiply the Cash second-chance drawing on June 9, Burrell Cleveland Jr.’s ticket was selected from 18,779,037 entries, officials said.
He beat odds of 1 in 18.7 million, according to Van Denton, communications director of the NC Education Lottery.
“Multiply What You Loooove” is the theme of the second-chance drawings in which Cleveland won his prize, Denton said in an email to the Observer.
Lottery win caught him off guard
“I’m still surprised that I’m sitting here,” Cleveland told lottery officials, referring to the shock over his $100,000 top prize win.
“I looked down at my phone to check emails and was like, ‘What?’ It caught me totally off guard,” Burrell told lottery officials.
Burrell, who lives in Matthews, said he thought the email at first was that he’d been entered into the second-chance drawing. Winners are notified by phone or email, according to the lottery.
He said he’s certain his wife would have loved being there, too, for his win.
Cleveland claimed his prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Tuesday. After taxes, he netted $70,750, officials said.
His wife was there ‘in spirit’
“It was nice driving in today because I could see her there sitting next to me in the car – in spirit,” he said. “Here we did it. We’re here.”
Burrell said he’ll put the money into savings for retirement, just like he and his wife discussed doing if he ever hit a lottery prize.
He’ll celebrate both his big win and upcoming birthday with dinner at his local Texas Roadhouse, he said.
Most popular games
Denton said the state lottery’s multiplier-theme scratch-offs, such as 10X and 50x, “are some of our most popular scratch-off games.”
Two 2021 Multiply the Cash second-chance drawings remain, according to the lottery.
In each drawing, players can win one $100,000 top prize, eight $5,000 prizes and 25 $500 prizes.
For the next drawing, players can enter their Multiply the Cash tickets via the lottery website, https://nclottery.com/Home, or by scanning the ticket’s bar code using the NC Lottery app, as Cleveland did, lottery officials said.
