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A lucky lottery player in North Carolina was so excited after his massive win that he had trouble sleeping before he was able to collect his prize.
Lloyd Armstrong, of Columbia, stopped by the Duck Thru Food Store on U.S. 64 on Friday (November 17) to get gas but he also decided to pick up a $2 Powerball ticket, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery. It wasn't until Sunday when his wife and son mentioned that a ticket sold in Tyrrell County won during the weekend drawing that he remembered his ticket, telling lottery officials he thought, 'Okay, wow. I really need to check my ticket.'"
When he did finally check the ticket, he found that he matched the numbers on all five white balls called during the drawing to score the $1 million prize, beating the odds of 1 in 11.6 million to land the massive prize. To commemorate the win, he and his wife took pictures of the lucky ticket.
"We looked at each other and said, 'what are we going to do now?'" he recalled. "We could hardly sleep last night."
Armstrong claimed his prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Monday (November 20), taking home an impressive $712,501 after all required state and federal tax withholdings. He told lottery officials he plans to get a financial advisor to help manage his prize, which he hopes to use to pay bills, donate to his church and take a trip to Scotland.