‘Something told me to stop’: NC man hits top lottery prize on way home from a trip
A North Carolina man hit a top lottery prize on his way home from an out-of-town trip, saying “something told me to stop and get a scratch-off ticket,” state lottery officials said Wednesday.
Timmy Childress of Sherrills Ford on Lake Norman bought the winning Millionaire Maker $30 ticket at the Times on Village Center North convenience store on N.C. 150 near his home, officials said.
He beat odds of 1 in 2.95 million, according to the lottery website.
Childress was scratching off the ticket in the store when a friend walked up, distracting him, according to the lottery.
“I hadn’t scratched off the prize yet, but I handed it to the lady behind the counter,” Childress told officials when he claimed his $100,000 prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Friday.
“She scanned it, and you know when you scan it and it’s a big prize, you hear the sound, and she said, ‘Honey, you have to take this to lottery headquarters,” Childress said. “When I scratched it off, that’s when I realized it was big money.”
After taxes, Childress took home $70,759, officials said.
“It feels great,” he said. “Amazing. It’s like a dream come true.”
Childress told lottery officials he will renovate his home with some of his earnings and just “make himself ‘a bit more comfortable.’”
The $30 Millionaire Maker game debuted in March with 30 top prizes of $1 million and 10 $100,000 prizes. According to the lottery, 17 million-dollar and six $100,000 prizes remain to be won.
Lucky Lake Norman streak
Childress continued the lucky streak of top lottery prize winners at stores along N.C. 150 and other areas of Lake Norman over the past year:
▪ In February, a Florida man bought a winning $500,000 ticket at a 7-Eleven on Sam Furr Road in Huntersville.
▪ Also in February, a Lake Norman man running out of gas won $10 million on a stop at the Lunar Mart on N.C. 16 in the eastern Lincoln County community of Denver. He plunked down $30 for the winning $10,000,000 Colossal Cash ticket.
▪ In January, Christopher Martin of Newton became what was then the sixth big winner of a lottery prize with a ticket bought at a Lake Norman store. Martin bought his winning $2 million ticket in the $20 “100X the Cash” ticket at Lake Norman Grocery on River Highway (N.C. 150 West) in Mooresville according to the lottery.
