‘All of Hatteras Island heard me.’ NC lotto player was ‘just screaming’ after big win
A North Carolina lottery player’s last-minute stop for groceries ended up paying off big time.
Burak Davrekanli was shopping at a Food Lion in Avon for something to eat for dinner when he bought two $5 Mega Bucks scratch-off lottery tickets, according to a Thursday news release from the North Carolina Education Lottery.
“I wasn’t planning to go to Food Lion,” Davrekanli told lottery officials. “And at the last minute I said, ‘Let me go and get a couple things for dinner.’ And then I just got the ticket from the machine and I went back home. For a while I forgot it.”
Later that night, he remembered he bought the tickets and told lottery officials he “just froze” when he scratched one and realized he won $200,000.
“I scratched the prize part and the first thing I saw was three 0s,” he told lottery officials. “And I was like, ‘Okay?’ And I kept scratching and there was another 0 and another 0 and then I saw the 2.”
He told lottery officials he then started celebrating.
“I was alone but I’m pretty sure all of Hatteras Island heard me because I was just screaming,” he said, according to the release.
He claimed his winnings Wednesday and took home $141,501 after taxes, the release says.
Davrekanli, an international college student studying liberal arts, told lottery officials he plans to spend the money on his education.
“I was all the time saying that, ‘One day I will win it. I’m just waiting for that day,’” he said. “It was like a dream.”
His win was the last top prize in the Mega Bucks game.
