Catawba County Man Finds Lucky Penny, Wins $250,000 Top Prize

CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. (News Release) — A stop for gas led Christopher Wray of Maiden to a lucky penny and the first $250,000 top prize in the new 20X The Cash game.

“I was actually stopping to get gas,” he recalled. “I went in to go use the facilities, and on the way in I found a penny, heads up, on the ground. And I was like, ‘Hey! Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck, right?’”

On the way out, the new February scratch-off tickets caught his eye.

“I was like well, I guess now that I have a penny I have to use it!” laughed Wray. “And I thought, well these are new, let’s grab one of these. And the first one, pop. I’m looking at it like, this can’t be right.”

He claimed his prize Wednesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh and, after required federal and state tax withholdings, took home $176,876

“I still don’t feel like I really get it,” he said. “It’s surreal.”

Wray purchased his winning $5 ticket at the Quik Trip on North Chester Street in Gastonia.

The 20X The Cash game launched this month with 10 top prizes of $250,000. Nine top prizes remain to be won.

Ticket sales from scratch-offs like 20X The Cash make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $725 million per year for education. For details on how lottery funds have helped all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.