Retiree ‘had a feeling’ she’d win big in NC lottery — then scored a $2 million prize
A retiree said she was going to win $2 million — then hit the jackpot in North Carolina.
Rosa Lilly got a chance to spin a game-show style prize wheel and won the exact amount that she had predicted, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.
“It just feels great,” Lilly, a retired certified nursing assistant, said in a July 13 news release.
Lilly scored the extra cash after she stopped at Wilder Grocery in Mount Gilead, roughly 60 miles east of Charlotte. While at the store, officials said she spent $10 on a ticket for the Bigger Spin scratch-off game.
“That was my lucky day,” Lilly told the N.C. Education Lottery.
Lilly, who won $50,000 at first, was then invited to spin the prize wheel, officials said. The night before she tried her luck, she told her daughter she would win the wheel’s top prize of $2 million.
“I just had a feeling,” Lilly said in the release.
That feeling was spot-on, and Lilly’s spin landed on the $2 million mark. After her earlier $50,000 win, her remaining prize totaled $1.95 million.
Lilly, a 67-year-old Montgomery County resident, kept more than $1.4 million after taxes. Now, she plans to “take a vacation to the Bahamas, remodel her house, buy a new Lexus, and give some money to her church and her family,” officials said.
It’s not the first time someone had a hunch before getting a big windfall.
In December, a North Carolina truck driver with a “lucky feeling” bought a lottery ticket worth $25,000 a year, McClatchy News reported.
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 July 14, 2022 at 12:19 PM with the headline "Retiree ‘had a feeling’ she’d win big in NC lottery — then scored a $2 million prize."
