David Rector, a Salisbury native, spends his days working as a letter carrier with the U.S. Post Office. Every now and then he’ll play the N.C. Education lottery, but he’s never won much. At least, not until he received a call in June informing him that he’d won the grand prize for the lottery’s Second-Chance drawing: a trip for two to Las Vegas for the 2013 Star Trek Convention.
Rector has been a long time supporter of the lottery. He says that normally he plays for Powerball or Mega Millions, but bought three scratch-off tickets on a whim. When they turned out to be duds, he entered them online in the Second-Chance drawing.
“I figured I gotta win something,” Rector said.
While there was another Second Chance contest going on at the time, Rector chose to enter the Star Trek drawing. He’s a fan of the series, and owns all the DVDs. Rector said he was aiming for second place, a prize pack that included Star Trek memorabilia. Instead, he got the grand prize.
After thinking it over and realizing he wouldn’t be able to take leave off of work, Rector decided to give the trip to his adult son, Mike.
When his dad called and asked if Mike and his wife, Emily, wanted to go Vegas, Mike Rector, of Greensboro, said he was surprised.
“I didn’t know if he was serious or not,” Mike said.
But Rector was very serious. He said he called his son to double check that he wanted to go before calling up the lottery office and accepting. Rector was happy to give the trip to his son.
“He enjoys watching the movies and all,” Rector explained. “He’s really excited about it and looking forward to it. He’s going to take his wife. They’ve always wanted to go to Las Vegas, and now they get a chance.”
The trip includes hotel and airfare and Mike and Emily will get to enjoy meeting Star Trek celebrities at the convention and going out on the town to see a few shows and enjoy the lights of Las Vegas.