Truck driver stops for a lottery ticket — and scores $5 million win in North Carolina
A truck driver stopped for a lottery ticket — and scored a life-changing prize in North Carolina.
Melchor Aguilar, of South Carolina, was traveling for work when he bought a scratch-off ticket that was worth $5 million, the N.C. Education Lottery wrote in a Jan. 2 news release.
The trucker has a lot to celebrate after stopping at the Kangaroo Express convenience store in Liberty, a roughly 60-mile drive west from Raleigh. While there, he spent $30 to try his luck on the 200X The Cash game.
It turns out, his ticket beat 1-in-2.9 million odds to win the game’s top prize, lottery officials wrote on their website.
Aguilar, who is from the Spartanburg-area city of Inman, decided to take his prize as a lump sum of $3 million. He received about $2.1 million after taxes.
Winners of big North Carolina lottery prizes typically choose the one-time lump sum option. But some lucky ticket holders instead opt for annual payments, including one man who had to make a tough decision about claiming his prize, McClatchy News reported in January 2024.
