‘I just started shaking.’ NC woman buys lottery ticket ‘on a whim,’ and wins.
A Charlotte woman “just started shaking” after she bought a $5 scratch-off ticket “on a whim” and hit the top prize in the game, N.C. lottery officials said Thursday.
“I was thinking maybe I was going to win 50 bucks, 100 bucks max,” 21-year-old Melissa Corano-Juarez said when she claimed her $200,000 Ice game prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh Wednesday.
Corano-Juarez bought the ticket at Raceway Amoco on Lyles Lane in Concord, according to a lottery news release.
She took the ticket home and “was in complete shock” when she scratched it off, she said.
Her family also didn’t believe her at first, she said.
“I told them, and they thought I was playing around, until I showed them the actual ticket,” she said.
After taxes, Corano-Juarez took home $142,501, according to the lottery. She intends to put the money into savings.
Corano-Juarez was the second winner of the top prize since the game launched in December, officials said. Four top prizes remain.
She also continued a week-long streak of Charlotte-area lottery winners.
▪ A South Carolina man was driving in Charlotte with a dollar left in his pocket when he thought how nice it would be to win the lottery, so he tried his luck at a QuikTrip and scored a Cash 5 jackpot, lottery officials said this week.
“I just had a dollar and a dream,” Chester resident Lance Spencer said when he claimed his $178,158 Cash 5 jackpot at lottery headquarters in Raleigh Monday, according to a lottery news release.
▪ Joshua Roten, a 31-year-old maintenance worker from Statesville, was another big winner. His girlfriend said he “looked like a ghost” after hitting a $214,420 Fast Play jackpot, lottery officials said Wednesday.
▪ And Mint Hill resident Charles Stewart landed a $2-million prize on a $20 100X The Cash ticket he bought at Earp’s Express on Brighton Park Drive in Mint Hill, according to the lottery. He claimed his prize on Tuesday.
This story was originally published March 30, 2023 at 1:46 PM with the headline "‘I just started shaking.’ NC woman buys lottery ticket ‘on a whim,’ and wins.."