Man ‘randomly’ buys $2 lottery ticket and wins big in NC. ‘Just a shot in the dark’

“Random” is an approach lottery players don’t often use, but it worked when John Reece decided to buy any North Carolina lottery ticket that caught his eye.

Reece “randomly” bought a Hot 50s Fast Play ticket Saturday, June 8, while at a Food Lion in Mocksville and won six figures, the N.C. Education Lottery wrote in a news release. Mocksville is about a 60-mile drive northeast of Charlotte.

His prize came to $121,399.

“It took me a minute and then I was like, ‘Oh my God this is happening,’” he said in the release.

“It was basically just a shot in the dark. I guess you could say it was just the right time.”

Tickets are $2 and Reece bested odds of 1 in 320,000 to win 20% of the jackpot.

He picked up his check Tuesday, June 11, at lottery headquarters in Raleigh and the prize came to $86,801 after state and federal taxes were deducted.

Reece intends to use part of it to pay off his car and the rest may be the down payment on a home.

His prize amounted to a fraction of the game’s $606,995 progressive jackpot.

This story was originally published June 12, 2024 at 10:15 AM with the headline "Man ‘randomly’ buys $2 lottery ticket and wins big in NC. ‘Just a shot in the dark’."