Lottery player wins jackpot prize after ‘lucky’ feeling leads her to buy NC ticket
A North Carolina woman’s “lucky” feeling ended up winning her a top lottery prize.
Ivory Thompson told North Carolina lottery officials she has days when she “randomly” feels lucky. She was having one of those days Saturday and decided to buy a lottery ticket.
“I just randomly have days where I feel lucky,” Thompson said, according to a release from the North Carolina Education Lottery. “I feel like my life could change that day. So, I get them here and there whenever I’m feeling lucky, and that day I was.”
She stopped at Alamance Church Food Mart in Greensboro on her way home from work as a server and bought a Millionaire Bucks scratch-off ticket for $20, according to the release.
She had just pulled up at a family member’s home when she scratched the ticket and saw she won $4 million.
“I had my mom and my sister with me and I scratched it before we went upstairs and then we just started crying,” she told lottery officials. “It was so overwhelming.”
Thompson had the choice of an annuity of $200,000 a year over 20 years or a lump sum of $2.4 million. She chose the lump sum and took home $1,698,006 after taxes, according to the lottery.
When she claimed her prize in Raleigh on Monday, she told lottery officials the money is “definitely going to change my life” and that she plans to start a career in real estate.
“I just want to make this money make money so I can set up a future for my son,” she said, according to the release. “Because that’s just all I can think about. How I’ve been granted an opportunity to create such a good future for him.”
Two $4 million prizes and five $100,000 prizes remain in the game, which launched in June, the lottery says.
