Raleigh, NC - A woman from Guilford County took home $481,440 after playing a NC Education Lottery scratch-off game.
Frances Landrum is the second person to win the $1,000 A Week For Life! game's top prize. Winning the top prize means $52,000 annually for the rest of your life, but winners have the option to choose a lump sum of $708,000 instead.
Landrum chose the lump sum, according to the NC Education Lottery. She was issued a check for $481,440 after taxes.
Her winning ticket was purchased from the Lowe's Foods on Main St. in Archdale.
In Pfafftown, which is in Forsyth County a man who is self-employed is $4 million richer from a scratch-off game.
Rusty Hunter told lottery officials he is semi-retired and keeps busy as a self-employed handyman. Hunter is the first winner of $4 million in the lottery's new $4,000,000 Gold Bullion scratch-off game. No one in state history has won a larger guaranteed instant prize.
"I'm a little more retired now," Hunter said as he claimed his prize. "To win it - what I won - is like 'Whoa.'"
Hunter decided to receive his $4 million prize in annuity payments of $200,000 for the next 20 years. After depositing his first after-tax check for $136,006. The new millionaire has already purchased a new Chevy Silverado pick-up truck and said he would like to buy a vacation home in the mountains where he can go hunting and fishing and spend time with his dad.
The ticket was purchased at the Three Brothers By-Lo on Reynolda Road in Winston-Salem. That's also where Hunter received his official winning check.
Hunter said he decided to give the $4,000,000 Gold Bullion game a try because he likes to play new games and his intuition told him a big win was coming. "You just get a feeling," he said. "And I knew I was going to win."