Man finds $20 his pocket and spends it on lottery ticket. It paid off big time in NC
A North Carolina man found $20 in his pocket and spent it on a lottery ticket that hit the jackpot.
“I was just in shock,” Thomas Presley told the N.C. Education Lottery in an Aug. 17 news release. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Now Presley — who works as an assistant principal for Wayne County Public Schools — wants to save some of his prize money for his daughter’s education. Officials said he got richer after he stopped at a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Goldsboro, roughly 55 miles southeast of Raleigh.
Presley said he didn’t plan to play the lottery at the store. But when he found the $20, he decided to spend it on a scratch-off ticket for the 100X The Cash game.
It turns out the ticket was worth much more than what he spent, scoring Presley a $100,000 prize. He joked that he had to double check his ticket to determine if the win was real.
“Sometimes I mistakenly look at the numbers wrong,” he told lottery officials.
After taking a second look at the numbers, Presley said he had to share the good news.
“First I called my wife. She didn’t believe it so I took a picture of it to show her,” Presley said.
Presley, who lives in Goldsboro, kept $71,256 after taxes. In addition to saving for his daughter’s future, he hopes to spend his prize money on home improvements, according to officials.
It’s not the first time a lottery player’s extra cash has turned into a big prize. In Virginia, a man got a windfall after he used money left from buying other tickets to try his luck again, McClatchy News reported in April.
This story was originally published August 18, 2023 at 5:38 AM with the headline "Man finds $20 his pocket and spends it on lottery ticket. It paid off big time in NC."
