Lottery player checks ticket at 3:30 a.m. and gets big surprise. ‘Wait a second’
A lottery player checked his ticket at 3:30 a.m. — and got a huge surprise.
Corey Hamilton was looking at drawing results early one morning when he realized his North Carolina ticket was worth $130,000.
“I was like, ‘Wait a second that can’t be right,’” Hamilton told the N.C. Education Lottery.
But Hamilton’s jackpot win was the real deal. And it came at a “great time” — just days before his birthday, lottery officials wrote in a Sept. 18 news release.
“It has kind of all lined up since I turn 40 on Saturday,” the lucky winner said.
Hamilton got an extra reason to celebrate after he stopped at a Han-Dee Hugo’s convenience store in Clinton, a roughly 65-mile drive southeast from Raleigh. While there, he spent $1 on a ticket for the Carolina Cash 5 game’s Sept. 16 drawing, McClatchy News reported.
It turns out, his ticket beat 1-in-962,598 odds to hit the jackpot. He kept $93,275 after taxes and hopes to put the prize money toward a new truck, bills and retirement.
“I don’t even know how to describe the feeling,” the winner, who lives in Clinton, told lottery officials. “I just always felt that if it’s meant to be, then it’s meant to be.”
This story was originally published September 19, 2025 at 10:01 AM with the headline "Lottery player checks ticket at 3:30 a.m. and gets big surprise. ‘Wait a second’."
