Lottery player cashing in $20 win buys another NC ticket — and wins much bigger prize
A man claiming a $20 lottery prize decided to buy another ticket — and it paid off big time in North Carolina.
Larry Hales, of South Carolina, played the lottery a second time and won $750,000, the N.C. Education Lottery said Wednesday in a news release.
“I couldn’t be happier,” he told officials.
Officials say Hales’ latest good fortune came on his way to a dentist appointment, when he stopped at a Han-Dee Hugo’s store. The business is on Benson Highway in Garner, just south of Raleigh.
That’s where he cashed in on his $20 win and decided to put some of the prize money toward a $10 ticket for the Jumbo Bucks scratch-off game, according to the lottery.
“I was standing there I said, ‘Well, why don’t I just buy a $10 ticket instead of a $20?’” Hales told officials. “And I thought, ‘If I win $750,000 I believe I can live with that.’”
Hales was waiting to make a deposit at the bank when he checked his ticket and discovered he was getting richer, according to the lottery. He said he immediately called his wife to tell her about the big prize.
“I had to show the tickets to her and ask her, ‘Please read this to make sure I’m seeing this right,’” he said in the news release. “I’ll bet we look at those tickets a dozen times before we came up here.”
After taxes, officials say Hales gets to keep $530,628. He and his wife may put the prize money toward a new vehicle or fixing up their house, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.
Hales is from North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, about 160 miles south of Garner.
This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Lottery player cashing in $20 win buys another NC ticket — and wins much bigger prize."
