Beginner’s luck? NC man hits the jackpot his second time playing the lottery
A 56-year-old man played the lottery for the second time ever — and scored a jackpot prize in North Carolina.
“My heart went into my feet,” winner Billy Pruett said in an Oct. 31 news release. “I couldn’t sleep all night.”
After the sleepless night, Pruett now plans to use some of his six-figure winnings to spoil his girlfriend, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.
“I’m going to buy my girlfriend a big Christmas present now,” he told officials.
Pruett is celebrating a $250,000 win after he went to Harry’s Quick Shop in Shelby. While at the store roughly 50 miles west of Charlotte, officials said he tried his luck on his second-ever lottery ticket.
It turns out, the ticket he bought for $5 was worth much more. He scored a quarter-million dollars, the top prize in the Mega Bucks Limited Edition game, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.
Pruett, a Cleveland County resident, kept $177,526 after taxes.
It’s not the first time a big lottery prize has gotten in the way of a good night’s sleep.
Earlier this year, a South Carolina man said he had trouble sleeping the night he hit the jackpot. And in Texas, a lucky player couldn’t rest days after scoring millions of dollars, McClatchy News reported in September.
This story was originally published November 1, 2022 at 6:53 AM with the headline "Beginner’s luck? NC man hits the jackpot his second time playing the lottery."
