Charlotte man gave wife lottery tickets. One turned into best Mother’s Day gift ever.
A Charlotte woman hit a $1 million jackpot on a scratch-off ticket her husband bought her as a Mother’s Day gift, North Carolina lottery officials said Wednesday.
“My husband came home Sunday afternoon and said, ‘I got you another Mother’s Day gift,’” Catherine Trew told lottery officials when claiming her prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Tuesday, according to a lottery news release. “And he handed me three scratch-offs.”
The first ticket she scratched off as the couple sat on their back swing won nothing. She won $20 on the second ticket, “which I thought was wonderful,” Trew said.
“And then on the third one, the second number I scratched had that ‘1 MIL’ bedside it, and we just sort of stared at it,” she said.
Trew won the first $1 million top prize in the Platinum 7s $10-a-ticket scratch-off game.
She beat odds of 1 in 3.64 million, according to the lottery website.
Trew’s husband bought the ticket at EZ Mart on Monroe Road in Charlotte, where they returned to scan and verify the ticket.
“We were jumping up and down and screaming in the store,” Trew said. “My sister said, ‘He’s never gonna top this one!’”
Trew had the choice of an annuity of $50,000 a year over 20 years, or a $600,000 lump sum. She chose the annuity, After taxes, she took home her first payment of $35,378, officials said.
“It hasn’t really sunk in,” she said. “It’s unbelievable, we’re so excited. It’s going to be retirement money.”
Four top prizes remain in the Platinum 7s game that debuted this month.
This story was originally published May 12, 2021 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Charlotte man gave wife lottery tickets. One turned into best Mother’s Day gift ever.."