‘Spectacular surprise.’ NC man’s stop for gas and coffee ends with lottery jackpot
A Charlotte-area man’s routine stop for coffee and gas during his morning commute to work led to a “spectacular surprise.”
Joshua Helton of Gastonia won the $1 million Spectacular Riches scratch-off prize.
“It was kind of a great morning!” Helton told North Carolina Education Lottery on Friday. “I always hoped to win something big, but I never thought I would hit a million dollars.”
Helton stopped at the QSC Foodmart on McAdenville Road in Lowell when he bought the winning scratch-off. While there, he traded in his winning ticket for two more. When those didn’t pan out, he tried his luck one more time and won the big prize.
“I walked back out there and pumped my gas, got back in my truck and scratched it off,” Helton told lottery officials. “I didn’t really know what to do at the time, so I just called my wife and woke her up, told her what was going on.”
Helton, a father of two, sped home to celebrate with her, then drove to work with the winning ticket locked away in his car’s dashboard.
Before claiming his prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh, Helton was given two options: Take the $1 million prize as an annuity of $50,000 a year over 20 years, or a lump sum of $600,000. He chose the lump sum, and after taxes, collected $424,507.
“I’m going to pay off some bills and put some money back for my kids,” Helton said. “That way they’ll have something when they get a little older.”
Spectacular Riches is a $25 game that launched in October with eight top prizes of $1 million and 20 $100,000 prizes. Seven of the $1 million prizes and 18 of the $100,000 prizes haven’t been claimed. The odds of winning are about 1 in 4.26.
