On the way to the dentist’s office, Larry Hales of North Myrtle Beach, S.C. stopped to cash in a winning $20 ticket, tried his luck again, and walked away as the winner of a $750,000 prize.

“I couldn’t be happier,” he said.

Hales purchased his lucky $10 Jumbo Bucks ticket from the Han-Dee Hugo on Benson Highway in Garner.

“I had a ticket that I went and cashed in,” said Hales. “I was standing there I said, ‘Well, why don’t I just buy a $10 ticket instead of a $20?’ And I thought, ‘If I win $750,000 I believe I can live with that.’”

Soon after making his purchase, he continued to his dentist’s office.

“I actually put the tickets in my truck and went in for my dental appointment,” said Hales. “After, I had to go to the bank to deposit some other money I had and I scratched them off while I was waiting in line at the drive-thru at the bank.”

He shared the news of his good fortune with his wife right away.

“I had to show the tickets to her and ask her, ‘Please read this to make sure I’m seeing this right,’” he recalled. “I’ll bet we look at those tickets a dozen times before we came up here.”

Hales claimed his prize Tuesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required federal and state tax withholdings, he took home $530,628.

He and his wife plan to spend the prize money on a few home repairs. “We might buy a new car,” said Hales. “Maybe a new truck.”

Ticket sales from scratch-off games make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $725 million a year for education. For details on how lottery funds have helped all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.