Arthur Mclean of Stanley, North Carolina decided to throw down $20 for two Jumbo Bucks scratch-off tickets. He hit a top $750,000 prize with one of them, officials said.
He beat odds of 1 in 3.36 million, according to the lottery website.
“I had to pick something up from the store,” Mclean told officials after claiming his prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Wednesday, according to a lottery news release. “I thought to myself, ‘Might as well stop and grab a lottery ticket.’”
Mclean bought two Jumbo Bucks scratch-off tickets at Stop N Save Mart on N.C. 73 in Denver.
“I was in my truck,” Mclean told officials. “I got to the winning ticket and was shocked.”
Mclean said he returned to the store to have a worker scan the ticket.
“When the noises went off, that told me I had won, I still didn’t believe it,” McLean said. “I had to have them scan it twice.”
When he returned home and told his wife, he said, “she jumped right off the bed, screaming, ‘You’re kidding me!’
“So I gave her the ticket and she said, ‘Wooo — we sure did!’”
After taxes, Mclean netted $530,628, officials said.
“I’ve got children,” Mclean told lottery officials. “I’d like to help them out, fix up our house a bit and put the rest in the bank.”