North Carolina Man Cashes In $600 Lottery Ticket, Finds Out He Won Almost $600,000

A North Carolina man got the surprise of a lifetime when he tried to cash in a $600 winning lottery ticket only to learn that he’d won nearly $600,000.

Joshua Locklear of Pembroke purchased a $10 50X The Cash ticket at the Pembroke Mini Mart on June 5th. Initially, he thought he’d landed a $600 prize. He went to the lottery headquarters in Raleigh to retrieve his winnings but was informed by lottery officials that he’d won the grand prize of $585,949, leaving the 32-year-old stunned.

“When I heard, I was like, ‘There’s no possible way I actually hit the jackpot.’ I couldn’t believe it,” Locklear stated. After taxes, he took home a lump sum of $416,085.

Locklear says the prize money dropped into his lap “at the right time.” He will be using the money to purchase himself a home and a car, with the remaining going towards helping his community. 

The North Carolina Education Lottery congratulated Locklear in a tweet on Tuesday. According to the organization, the odds of winning a Fast Play jackpot are just 1 in 320,000.

Joshua Locklear of #Pembroke just won a $585,949 #FastPlay jackpot! His 50X The Cash ticket was from Pembroke Mini Mart on E. 3rd St. “I really wasn’t expecting that,” Locklear said. Now he's planning to buy a new house! Congrats, Joshua. #NCLottery https://t.co/4erbBaqA7S pic.twitter.com/l1AOY1QEvT

— NC Education Lottery (@nclottery) June 7, 2022