Raleigh resident Bradley Branch checked his scratch-off while eating dinner at his house Tuesday night and could hardly take another bite after he discovered a $200,000 scratch-off prize.

“I kind of got the shakes,” Branch recalled. “I could barely get the fork to my mouth.”

He bought his lucky $5 More Money ticket from Cool Mart on Penny Road in Raleigh.

“I just liked the odds on the ticket,” he replied when asked why he chose the scratch-off.

Branch said he started to get a ‘nervous, jittery feeling’ when he first saw that he won.

“I was like, ‘Wait a minute. I think that’s a winner,’” he said. “I took a picture and sent it to my best friend.”

Branch arrived at lottery headquarters Wednesday to claim his prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $142,501.

He said he will use the money to buy a car and put the rest in savings.

The More Money game debuted in September with five $200,000 top prizes. Three $200,000 prizes remain to be claimed.

Ticket sales from scratch-offs make it possible for the lottery to raise $2.8 million a day on average for education. For details on how $64.1 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Wake County in 2022, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.