Lucky lottery ticket leaves man with a ‘nice early birthday present’ in North Carolina
An “avid golfer” tried his luck on a lottery ticket — and won a prize worth celebrating.
“It’s my birthday in a week,” Jack Romans Jr. told the North Carolina Education Lottery. “This is a nice early birthday present.”
Romans scored the $100,000 gift after he stopped at RM Mart, a store near the South Carolina border in the coastal town of Sunset Beach. While there, he bought a ticket for the $2,000,000 Diamond Deluxe scratch-off game, officials said in a May 13 news release.
It turns out, Romans’ $20 ticket was worth much more.
“I guess I was just in the right place at the right time,” Romans said.
Romans, who is from the town of Calabash, kept $71,506 after taxes. The golf lover already knows what he will do with his winnings.
“I’m going to get a new set of irons,” Romans said, adding that he also wants to put money toward bills.
It’s not the first time a lottery player hoped to treat themselves to golf gear. Another North Carolina winner planned to let his wife spend his windfall — as long as he could spend some of it on golf clubs, McClatchy News reported in 2022.
This story was originally published May 13, 2024 at 10:38 AM with the headline "Lucky lottery ticket leaves man with a ‘nice early birthday present’ in North Carolina."