After winning lottery prize, NC woman tries ‘her luck again.’ It pays off big time
When a North Carolina woman snagged her $200 lottery prize, it was just the start to a much bigger winning streak.
Instinct led Portia Opharrow to buy more scratch-off tickets, a decision that paid off big time, the N.C. Education Lottery said Wednesday in a news release.
“I was sitting in my car scratching and scratching and I saw all these 0’s,” she said in the release.
It turns out, one of the tickets was worth $100,000, and Opharrow was eager to tell people.
“I wanted to be able to make sure, ‘Am I seeing this right?’” Opharrow told the lottery as she remembered a visit to her sister’s house. “And I just stood there and cried, cried, cried.”
Officials say Opharrow’s latest good fortune started with a trip to the Food Lion grocery store on Red Banks Road in Greenville. She was claiming a $200 lottery prize when instinct told her to “try her luck again,” according the news release.
That’s when Opharrow decided to play the Millionaire Bucks game and bought the second winning ticket, according to the release.
After taxes, she gets to keep $70,756, the N.C. Education Lottery says.
Opharrow, who lives in Greenville, told officials she plans to spend the prize money on her kids, bills and home renovations.
“I’m rejoicing because I need some remodeling done,” she told the lottery. “But I couldn’t afford it, and now I can do what I need to do without borrowing the money.”
Even after her big prize, Opharrow plans to try for another lottery win.
“I’m going to be a millionaire,” she told officials. “My mantra is, ‘If you’re not in it, you cannot win it.’”
But, “make sure you pay your bills before you buy your tickets,” she added, according to the release.
Greenville is in Pitt County and roughly 85 miles east of Raleigh.
This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 10:14 AM with the headline "After winning lottery prize, NC woman tries ‘her luck again.’ It pays off big time."
