NC man finds lucky penny ‘heads up’ on stop for gas, scratches off top lottery prize
A Catawba County man credits a lucky penny he found “heads up” during a stop for gas in Gastonia for landing him a top lottery prize, North Carolina lottery officials said Thursday.
“I was actually stopping to get gas,” Christopher Wray of Maiden told officials when he claimed his $250,000 win at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Wednesday, according to a lottery news release.
“I went in to go use the facilities, and on the way in I found a penny, heads up, on the ground,” Wray said. “And I was like, ‘Hey! Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck, right?’”
Wray said he was leaving the QuikTrip on North Chester Street when he noticed the new February scratch-off tickets. He used the penny to scratch off a $5 20X The Cash ticket and hit the top prize.
Wray beat odds of 1 in 4.12 million, according to the lottery game’s website.
“I was like well, I guess now that I have a penny, I have to use it” Wray said with a laugh. “And I thought, well these are new, let’s grab one of these. And the first one, pop. I’m looking at it like, this can’t be right.”
After taxes, Wray took home $176,876, according to the lottery.
“I still don’t feel like I really get it,” Wray told lottery officials. “It’s surreal.”
The 20X The Cash game launched this month with 10 top prizes of $250,000. Nine top prizes remain.