Prank about big lottery win turns out to be ‘real deal’ for North Carolina man
A man thought a call about a big North Carolina lottery prize was a prank — until he found out the “real deal.”
Roger Hutchens was joining his wife for lunch when he got a call telling him his ticket was worth $1 million, the N.C. Education Lottery said Wednesday in a news release.
“I thought it was my buddy messing with me,” Hutchens said in the release.
But it wasn’t a joke at all.
It turns out, Hutchens won $1 million in a second-chance drawing for the Colossal Cash scratch-off game, officials say. His ticket beat out more than 680,000 entries, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.
”It was really pretty awesome once I found out it was the real deal,” Hutchens said in the news release.
He took the prize in a lump sum and kept $424,500 after taxes, officials say.
Hutchens, who works in information technology, told the lottery he and his wife hope to put the money toward bills.
“We have some college loans that this’ll help so the kids don’t have payments when they get married,” he said in the release.
Hutchens lives in Mocksville, a town in Davie County and roughly 60 miles northeast of Charlotte. The lottery says it notifies second-chance drawing winners like Hutchens via phone or email.
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Prank about big lottery win turns out to be ‘real deal’ for North Carolina man."
