News writer
Who likes work trips? An Alabama man certainly does now, as it helped land him a $100,000 Powerball win!
The winning ticket
Christopher Baker of Leesburg, Alabama, said “it was definitely a shocker” after finding out he had won a $100,000 prize playing Powerball.
Baker happened to be in North Carolina for work, so he decided to try his luck with the lottery since Alabama doesn’t sell lotto tickets.
Baker bought the winning $3 Quick Pick ticket from Jack B Quick, located on Old N.C. 10 in Hickory. The ticket was for the Saturday, July 13, drawing.
The winning white ball numbers for that drawing were 9, 55, 59, 66, and 69, with the Powerball number being 21.
Baker matched four of the five white ball numbers and the Powerball number to win $50,000. However, he bought a Power Play ticket, so his prize doubled to $100,000 with the 2X multiplier hit.
No one could believe it
After checking his ticket, Baker told lottery officials that he “just kept looking at it to make sure” he was “reading it right.” He told his family about the big win, but they didn’t seem to believe him either.
However, it was a winning ticket, and he made his way to the lottery headquarters on Wednesday to claim his prize. After the required federal and state tax withholdings, Baker took home $71,501.
Now that he has the winnings in hand, he said he plans on saving the money to help buy a house in the future.
Powerball jackpot keeps growing
While Baker won $100,000 playing Powerball, no one matched all of the numbers to win the jackpot. That trend has continued lately, as the Powerball jackpot has now grown to $91 million, with an estimated cash value of $43.7 million.
The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million.
Another North Carolina Lottery winner
Some other North Carolina Lottery players also have reason to celebrate. One of those players happens to be Katherine Payne of Knightdale. She took a chance when buying a $2 Lucky for Life ticket on July 15, and it paid off when she won a $ 25,000-a-year-for-life prize.
The winning white ball numbers for that drawing were 1, 2, 3, 20, and 24, with the Luck Ball being 18. Payne matched all five of the white balls in the drawing to win the $25,000 a year for life prize. The odds of winning that prize are 1 in 1.8 million.
Payne bought the winning ticket from Poor Boy General Store & Grill, located at 5804 Poor Boy Farm Road in Knightdale.
She also made her way to lottery headquarters on Wednesday and had to choose between taking the $25,000 a year for the rest of life or a $390,000 lump sum payment. Payne did choose the $390,000 lump sum payment. After taking out the required state and federal tax withholdings, she took home $279,050.
Enjoy playing the North Carolina Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.
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