ROCKWELL — Ann Beaver plans to pay off her mortgage after scratching off the $200,000 top prize on her “20X The Cash” game ticket in the North Carolina lottery.
Beaver learned of her big win on Wednesday at Charlie’s Food Mart on Faith Road in Salisbury, where she bought the lucky ticket.
“I thought I was seeing things,” Beaver said in a news release from the agency that runs the N.C. Education Lottery.
“My heart was going: Boom. Boom. Boom. I got in the car and cried all the way home. I never thought it would be me that won big like this. I always figured that this was something that happened to other people.”
After state and federal taxes were withheld, Beaver received a check for $136,001. As of Friday morning, two more $200,000 prizes remain to be claimed in the $5 20X The Cash game.
“I can already feel the weight being lifted,” Beaver said as she received her winnings. “My house is paid for. I’m very blessed.”
Beaver isn’t the only recent winner from Rowan County. Charles Wilkerson of China Grove won $10,000, according to the lottery agency.