Aaron Alston of Spring Hope said he can finally buy a sports car after a $5 scratch-off ticket won him a $200,000 prize.
“I’ve always wanted a sports car,” Alston said. “Probably a Camaro.”
Alston bought his lucky Carolina Jackpot ticket from Fuel Doc on South Barnes Street in Nashville. He took the ticket home to scratch it off.
“It was shocking,” Alston said. “I really wasn’t expecting that.”
Alston said he was not the only one who couldn’t believe his good luck.
“I called some close family members to tell them, but they didn’t believe it so I had to FaceTime to show it to them,” he said.
Alston arrived at lottery headquarters Thursday to collect his prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $142,021.
The $5 Carolina Jackpot game debuted in June with six $200,000 prizes. Two $200,000 prizes remain to be claimed.
Players get a second chance with their Carolina Jackpot tickets by scanning the tickets into their lottery accounts where they are automatically entered into a second-chance drawing. The drawing’s rolling jackpot continues to grow with every entry until the next drawing.
The first four drawings feature the rolling jackpot and the fifth drawing features a top prize of $200,000. The date of the fourth drawing is Nov. 2.
Ticket sales from scratch-off games make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $2.5 million a day on average for education. A $10 million grant, using money raised by the lottery, is helping Nash County build the new Red Oak Elementary School. For details on other ways Nash County benefits from lottery funds, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.