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RETIRED SCOTLAND COUNTY TEXTILE WORKER WINS $1 MILLION PRIZE
May 25, 2012
For John Murphy of Laurinburg, a quick stop at the store and a $2 Powerball ticket made him the most recent North Carolinian to win $1 million playing the lottery.
Tuesday evening, the day before the May 23 Powerball drawing, Murphy stopped at the Laurinburg Food Mart on Produce Market Road in Laurinburg to get a few assorted items for his girlfriend, Tammy Mayo. A regular Pick 3 and Pick 4 player, Murphy decided to buy a Powerball ticket, letting the computer choose his numbers at random.
He didn’t look at the ticket again until Thursday afternoon when he stopped at another store to check the winning numbers. Upon realizing he matched all five white balls, Murphy shared the news of his good fortune with Mayo.
“He walked in and said, ‘Baby I hit,’” Mayo recalled. “I said, ‘Hit what?’” After Murphy showed her the winning ticket, Mayo was stunned. “I looked at it again and said ‘You got all five numbers!’”
Murphy, a North Carolina native who worked in textile factories for 30 years before retiring in 2004, collected his prize money at lottery headquarters on Friday afternoon. He was undecided about how to spend his after-tax winnings of $680,000.
“It’s hard to believe,” he said. “I feel good.”
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