NC man bought losing lottery ticket. Then he said God had him try again — and won big
Like every other North Carolina lottery ticket Samuel Cureton had bought over the years, the one he paid $25 for at his local market this week won him nothing but an emptier wallet.
He was about to leave the Shoprite Markets store on Statesville Road in Cornelius when “a voice in my head” told him to return to the clerk and buy a second Spectacular Riches ticket, he told The Charlotte Observer on Friday.
He scratched off a $1-million top prize. Cureton beat 1 in 4.26 million odds, according to the Spectacular Riches page on NCLottery.com.
“I’ve bought tickets since the (North Carolina) lottery began, and this is the first time I’ve won,” he told the Observer.
That’s quite the dry spell. The lottery began selling tickets on March 30, 2006.
The 71-year-old Huntersville resident has only one explanation for his big win. “I think God led me in this,” he said. That thought in his head “was God,” he said.
Why he chose the lump sum
Cureton claimed his prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Wednesday.
He chose between $50,000 a year for 20 years and a $600,000 lump sum, officials said. He chose the lump sum and took home $426,067 after taxes, according to the lottery.
Cureton told the Observer he chose the lump sum because of his age. He’ll give money to his church, which he declined to name, and continue to help those in need.
Otherwise, he has no grand vacation or other plans lined up, he said. “I was already to the beach last year, Myrtle Beach,” he said. “I don’t need to go again.”
He loves to cook, give to others
Cureton said he loves to spend time cooking, and mainly for others — schools, birthday parties, reunions and church and other community gatherings.
“I cook everywhere,” he said.
He raises watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini, squash and okra on a half-acre in Huntersville and enjoys making “seafood, chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, macaroni-and-cheese” for gatherings.
Cureton said three of his four daughters are living, and he has 12 great-grandchildren. His wife, Connie Cureton, died three years ago.
God called him to serve
In his 20s he drove a tractor-trailer, eventually rising to supervisor level for a trucking company. He also worked full-time over the decades at a Charlotte chemical company and the former PET Milk plant on The Plaza.
One constant in his life is God, he said, and he’s always felt called to help others, such as people unable to afford their rent or grocery bills.
To those truly in need, he said, his lottery win will enable him to keep giving back.
“Always in my heart, I want to help people,” Cureton told the Observer.