Man asks his mom to check NC lottery ticket — and she returns with $1 million surprise
When a North Carolina man asked his mother to check his lottery ticket, he wasn’t expecting her to return with such life-changing news, lottery officials said.
A trip to Sumner Food Mart and Hardware in Greensboro turned valuable for William Coble, who decided to grab a $2 Quick Pick ticket, according to a Nov. 28 North Carolina Education Lottery news release. He buys tickets every couple of days, he told lottery officials.
“This time it paid off,” he said in the release.
Coble asked his mother to check on his ticket online to see if he had won anything, lottery officials said. When she looked up his ticket, she had big news to deliver.
“Don’t get too excited but I think you won a million dollars,” his mother said, per Coble’s retelling in the release. He had matched all five white balls on his lottery ticker for the Nov. 17 drawing, according to lottery officials.
After cashing out $712,501 after taxes, Coble plans to fulfill his dream of finally buying a house, he told lottery officials.
“I’ve been saving for a while but I can finally do it now,” he said in the release. “I would like to buy one in the Greensboro area.”
North Carolina lottery officials originally put out a Nov. 18 call-out looking for the lucky $1 million winner — which was Coble — who didn’t claim the prize at the time.
Another player struck big a day later, winning a $1 million Powerball prize. The man who won, Lloyd Armstrong, bought his ticket in Tyrrell County, which is about 150 miles east of Raleigh.
