$1 lottery ticket turns into life-changing win. ‘Happened two days before my birthday’
A $1 lottery ticket turned into a life-changing prize for a North Carolina man.
“This happened two days before my birthday,” Terrell Bethea told the N.C. Education Lottery. “Isn’t that wild?”
Bethea got an early 36th birthday gift when he hit the jackpot in the Cash 5 game. His ticket matched all the numbers picked in the Aug. 5 drawing, news that made his wife emotional.
“She fell to her knees and broke down crying,” the winner told lottery officials in a news release.
Bethea scored a $1,134,413 prize after stopping at the Friendly Mart in Robbins, a roughly 70-mile drive southwest from Raleigh. While there, he spent a dollar on the Cash 5 ticket that won big, officials wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In North Carolina, drawing game winners have about six months to cash in. But Bethea didn’t waste time, claiming his prize the morning after the drawing, McClatchy News reported.
“This means more to me than you can possibly imagine,” Bethea said.
Bethea, who is from the Moore County community of West End, kept $811,106 after taxes. He plans to fulfill a longtime dream of buying his wife a home.
“Now I can get my family the house they deserve,” the lucky husband told lottery officials.
