NC man discovers lottery win waiting at dentist. ‘Couldn’t have come at a better time’

A Concord, North Carolina, man was sitting in the parking lot waiting for a dentist appointment when he discovered he was nearly $100,000 richer.

Kenneth Hertzog, a rebar worker, bought a few Cash 5 tickets from the Publix on Weddington Road days earlier. As he was about to head into the office to get a crown finished, his wife remembered the tickets, he said.

“We pulled into the parking lot and my wife asked if I had the lottery ticket,” recalled Hertzog. “She said, ‘I think we might have won $250.’ And I said, ‘Why can’t we win the big one?’”

Turns out, they did. Hertzog’s lucky numbers netted him a $138,292 jackpot, according to the North Carolina Education Lottery.

“I pulled it up and looked at it, and I said, ‘We got all the numbers. We got all five!’” he said.

Hertzog collected his prize at the lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Friday, taking home $97,842 after taxes.

The money will be especially helpful now, he said. Hertzog and his wife Tina are planning on moving to Florida, to be nearer to his mother.

“This will actually help us move so we can be near her,” he said. “It couldn’t have come at a better time.”

This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 6:29 PM with the headline "NC man discovers lottery win waiting at dentist. ‘Couldn’t have come at a better time’."