Lottery player checking his ticket saw some zeroes — ‘then another and another’
A lottery player thought he would win big one day — then he checked his scratch-off ticket.
“I saw a couple zeroes then another and another,” David Michael told the North Carolina Education Lottery in a June 12 news release. “I got lucky.”
Michael scored $100,000 after he stopped at the Fast Fuels gas station in Thomasville, a roughly 20-mile drive southeast from Winston-Salem. While there, he spent $50 on a ticket for the $8 Million Money Maker game.
But the lucky purchase almost didn’t happen.
“I actually wasn’t going to go to the store that night because I was feeling a little sick,” Michael told lottery officials. “But I forced myself to go.”
Michael was at home when he scratched off his ticket, revealing the huge win.
“I figured it would happen sooner or later,” the prize winner said in the release. “I just had a feeling.”
Michael is from Lexington, in the Thomasville area. He kept $71,764 after taxes and plans to put the money toward a pier for his lake home.
It’s not the first time someone’s intuition was spot on. Another North Carolina lottery player thought a big win was in her future before she scored half of a jackpot prize, McClatchy News reported in 2024.
This story was originally published June 12, 2025 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Lottery player checking his ticket saw some zeroes — ‘then another and another’."
