‘We were just totally gob smacked.’ NC grandmother wins big with $5 lottery ticket
A grandmother bought a $5 lottery ticket — and it paid off big time in North Carolina.
DeeDee Haberle can buy a new home with money from her $250,000 jackpot prize, the N.C. Education Lottery said Tuesday in a news release.
“It’s just so thrilling to think, particularly at this time of the year, that joy and that happiness would come into our family,” Haberle told lottery officials.
The grandmother’s big win came after a trip to Three Brothers By-Lo, a store in Winston-Salem. That’s where she tried her luck on a scratch-off for the $250,000 Money Match game, officials say.
It was Sunday when Haberle’s daughter scratched the ticket, revealing the top prize.
“She looked down at the number and I looked down at the number, and then she looked at me and I looked at her,” Haberle told officials. “We were just totally gob smacked.”
Haberle, who lives in Forsyth County, kept $176,876 after taxes. She claimed the prize days before Christmas, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.
“I have been living with my daughter and her husband and my granddaughter and have been in the process of trying to get my own place and this is going to bring me that,” she said in the lottery’s news release.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhen gambling is more than a game
Gambling is designed to be a source of entertainment.
If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.
This story was originally published December 24, 2020 at 5:57 PM.
