Lottery player ‘almost fainted’ over her big NC win — and rushes to tell her son
A lottery player “almost fainted” over her big North Carolina win — and rushed to tell her son about the prize, officials said.
But he didn’t believe her at first.
“My son said, ‘I don’t mean no disrespect, but you’re lying,’” $1 million prize winner Eunice Brown told the N.C. Education Lottery. “I had to send him a picture to convince him.”
Brown said her son wasn’t the only person skeptical about the lucky win.
“I looked at the ticket and didn’t believe it,” Brown said in an April 18 news release. “Like I could see it, but just couldn’t believe it.”
But the win was the real deal, and it came after Brown went to Home Race Mart in Lake Waccamaw, a town roughly 40 miles northwest of Wilmington. While at the store, officials said she tried her luck on a $30 scratch-off ticket for the Millionaire Maker game.
Brown made the purchase one year after a ticket she bought at the same store won a smaller $5,000 prize. But when she discovered her more recent ticket was worth much more, she said she “had to come back down to Earth.”
“I thought I was going to faint,” Brown told the N.C. Education Lottery. “I really did feel numb.”
Brown, a Bladen County resident, took her prize in a lump sum of $600,000 and kept $427,509 after taxes. She said she plans to put some of the prize money toward bills and share it with her family members.
It’s not the first time a lottery player has experienced numbness after hitting the jackpot. One recent North Carolina winner was left “in a haze,” while a South Carolina man felt “numb for a couple of days,” McClatchy News reported.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhen gambling is more than a game
Gambling is designed to be a source of entertainment.
If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.
This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 8:06 AM with the headline "Lottery player ‘almost fainted’ over her big NC win — and rushes to tell her son."
