‘Third time’s the charm’: NC man scores big lottery win after he keeps trying his luck
A lottery winner used his prize money to buy another scratch-off ticket — and his decision paid off big time in North Carolina.
Harold Gannon scored $100,000 on his third attempt at playing the 100X The Cash game, the N.C. Education Lottery said Tuesday in a news release.
“If I didn’t win on that other ticket, I would have never bought it,” Gannon said in the release. “It was luck.”
His good fortune started when he went to Maza Food Mart in Henderson, a city in Vance County and roughly 45 miles northeast of Raleigh. That’s where he tried his luck on his first scratch-off ticket on Friday, according to the lottery.
“I looked at the bottom number and it had a number 3 and I really didn’t like number 3,” Gannon told officials. “So, I bought the ticket next to it.”
That ticket won him $20, which he spent on a scratch-off worth much more, officials say.
For Gannon, “it was third time’s the charm,” the N.C. Education Lottery wrote on Twitter.
After finding out he won $100,000 from the third ticket, Gannon told officials he wanted to get on his motorcycle and share the good news.
“I got real excited,” he said in the news release. “I put it in my pocket and I had to go home and tell my wife. I drove down the road with my hand in my pocket so it wouldn’t blow out.”
Gannon, who has been a glass plant worker for more than 40 years, got to keep $70,756 after taxes, the release said. He told lottery officials he plans to buy a car for his wife and pay bills before retirement.
“Even though it’s right there in front of my face, it’s hard to believe winning that much,” Gannon said, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.
