19-02-2025
Lottery player thought he won $10 in North Carolina. The truth left him ‘flabbergasted'
A lottery player thought he won $10 — then the truth left him 'flabbergasted.'
'I was just in the right place at the right time,' $100,000 prize winner Anthony Dudley told the North Carolina Education Lottery. 'It blew my mind.'
Dudley hit the jackpot after he spent $20 to play the Win Big game. He bought his lucky scratch-off ticket while getting food at Stallion Tobacco and Vape in Angier, a roughly 20-mile drive south from Raleigh.
'I just stopped to get a snack, and somehow my hunger pains turned into fortune,' Dudley told lottery officials in a Feb. 18 news release.
When Dudley first checked his ticket, he missed some key details.
'I saw the one and zero so I thought it was $10,' he said. 'When I realized how much it was, I was flabbergasted.'
The $100,000 prize was the real deal, and the lucky winner kept $71,756 after taxes. He is from Smithfield, a roughly 30-mile drive southeast from Raleigh.
'A win like this can change your whole outlook,' Dudley told lottery officials. 'I'm just tickled to death.'
It's not the first time a snack run has led to a huge prize. Another North Carolina lottery player planned to get food and a drink when he bought a lottery ticket that made him richer, McClatchy News reported in 2023.
