NC combat veteran checks lotto ticket, goes back to sleep before realizing he won big Cash 5 jackpot (NC Lottery/Released)
A North Carolina man who is a combat veteran checked the Jan. 28 Cash 5 results early the next morning, but went back to sleep before he realized that he had won big.
When he woke back up for a second time, Steve Sturdavant, a Half Moon resident, had hardly rubbed the sleep from his eyes when it finally registered that his $1 Cash 5 ticket had won him $100,000, he told lottery officials, according to a Feb. 3 news release.
“I was half asleep when I first found out,” Sturdavant said in the news release. “When I woke up later that morning I had to check again to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.”
The 63-year-old told lottery officials that he bought his lucky ticket from the Food Lion on Branchwood in Jackson.
After state and federal tax withholding, Sturdavant, who retired from the Army as a disabled veteran, took home $71,014 from the lottery headquarters in Raleigh, officials said.
He plans to use the prize money to work on his house, buy a new van and help some family members, Sturdavant told lottery officials, but he still hasn’t quite processed the news.
“I don’t think it’ll really sink in until I see it in the bank account,” Sturdavant told officials, laughing.
If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.
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