Couple wins huge on $10 NC lottery ticket. ‘We are finally going to get a house’

A $10 lottery ticket purchased at a Harris Teeter in eastern North Carolina paid off with the kind of cash that will forever change a couple’s life.

Krystal Hastings and James Patana of Wilmington won a $1 million prize playing the Lucky Loteria scratch-off game, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.

The odds of winning a top prize are 1 in 1,208,857.5.

“We are finally going to get a house,” Patana told lottery officials. “This is an opportunity for our family. It’s going to help everyone tremendously.”

They bought their ticket on Saturday, Nov. 1, from the Harris Teeter on Parker Farm Road in Wilmington, officials said.

Realizing it won the top prize left Patana shaking, he told lottery officials. “I couldn’t sleep that night.”

“When Hastings and Patana arrived at lottery headquarters Monday, they had a decision to make. They could choose to receive the prize as an annuity of $50,000 over 20 years or a lump sum of $600,000,” lottery officials said. “They chose the lump sum of $600,000 and decided to split the prize with each claiming $300,000.”

Their shares came to $215,251 each after federal and state tax withholdings, the lottery said.

“It didn’t really feel real until we got here,” Hastings told lottery officials. “This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

This story was originally published November 5, 2025 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Couple wins huge on $10 NC lottery ticket. ‘We are finally going to get a house’."