Four tedious hours of searching later, and he has the winning ticket
By Kate Northrop
A North Carolina man bent on finding the last top prize in a lottery scratch-off game conducted a modern day treasure hunt and came out the big winner.
Last Thursday, one North Carolina resident traveled to 40 different stores in a crusade to find the last top prize-winning ticket for a scratch-off lottery game. Four well-spent hours later, his tenacity lands him exactly what he was looking for — a $5 million jackpot.
One day, Kevin Clark, of Candler, had his sights set on that one remaining top prize for the $5,000,000 Mega Cash scratch-off game, which has been active for over three years now. He set out on a four-hour journey, hopping from store to store to buy every single one of those $20 tickets he could find.
Finally, his efforts brought him to the Stop N Go convenience store at a gas station on U.S. 70 in Swannanoa, where he purchased the last top-prize winning ticket of the game.
"I had a real good feeling it was going to be in the western part of the state," Clark explained in a press release. "I scanned it with my phone, and it told me to go see a retailer. So, I scratched it off, and when I scratched it off, I couldn't believe it. I started shaking. And then I cried."
According to the North Carolina Education Lottery, Clark had reportedly "put in the research" before finally deciding that he would take a big risk in buying up every ticket from the game he could find.
"There was only a handful of stores that even had them," he said.
Clark opted not to go into work on Monday morning and instead went to lottery headquarters in Raleigh to claim his winnings. He had the choice of taking either the $5 million prize as an annuity of $250,000 every year for 20 years or a lump sum of $3 million. He decided on the one-time payment and took home $2,122,506 — well worth the four hours of searching.
First things first, the winner plans on getting a good night's sleep after the excitement of winning kept him up for days. Beyond that, Clark says he wants to get into real estate.
"I'm a simple man, and I mow grass," he told the lottery. "but I've always been interested in real estate, so my biggest plans with the majority of the money is to invest in real estate and some small businesses."
Talk about tenacity. Congratulations! Was wondering how much he spent on the four hour 'shopping spree' @ $20/ticket, but who cares? His logic paid off handsomely. Chalk up another one for the NCEL.
Talk about doing your homework!!! Good for him.
The next question is, will NC change things up after this?
Kevin Clark should have taken the annual installment plan instead of the lump sum payout. At least that's what I would done. That right there would be a yearly pension plan that would go into a trust...
Nicely done, Kevin Clark!
my dad get a very nice pension(still)
investment since a mere young late forties, 50 y.o. middle age, paying off for him (still)
yep. he really started investing then,and now him and mom are happier senior citizens et.al.,
and i know he was saying when i share this story with him, "invest it."No need to take a pymt., per year. Gov't are not to be trusted, he say.
Better to take lump-sum then invest it,etc.
I am so happy for this guy,
a fellow nc resident, make me happy seeing this."
I hear ya, on yearly pymt., etc.al., but i wouldn't.
Not me. I would be prudent like Kev.
I don't trust all gov't, no way.
I would want it all JIC(just in case)something goes haywire,
then he don't get his other payments,no thanks.
I am happy another guy took lump sum. Great job! So happy for him.
congrats!
"will NC change things up after this?"
Why should they change anything? All they did was report how many top prizes were unclaimed.
"wondering how much he spent on the four hour 'shopping spree' "
If I knew that I'd have a pretty good idea how he'd feel if he was reading an LP article about some other guy that had just claimed the prize after buying the winning ticket on a whim after stopping for gas last Wednesday night. That he says only a handful of stores had them makes me suspect he didn't have to buy an awful lot of them, so maybe he wasn't risking anything more than a grand or two. Despite the chance that the last winner was already sold but not yet claimed, it's a very reasonable bet to buy as many tickets as you can find when you can't find that many of them. I'm sure it was a lot less risk than when Joan Ginther was buying entire packs of tickets so that the store would have to order more for her to buy when she was searching for a big prize in the TX lottery.
The good Doc has kept a very low profile since her wins.
So it took him 4 hours to go to 40 stores to buy up all of those tickets...that's a lot of stores
to go to in 4 hours but sure turned out to be worth it for him....wish I had the money to do
something like that...you would be bound to get some big wins even if you did not get the
big one!
So happy for him!
something smells fishy here! Ok let's see 20 dollar ticket let's say 1 and half rolls at each store lets just say 500 a store times 40. 20000 if my math is right! What I question is how much was he going to lose If he had not found that needle in a haystack? Lol
The reason it's not advisable to take the annuity is taxes. They almost always go up, as some people have found out.
Not unless they use the annuity to invest in stocks over a gradual period of time. It never bothered anyone in the past before the lottery offered the lump sum option. Some people take the annuity for the yearly income from the full amount. The lump sum, on the other hand, is what's available as payment, which is half the annuity amount that will get taxed at almost half the amount. There are some lottery winners who regret not talking the annuity payments over the 20 year time frame..
Kevin spent $7.3 million* buying up all the tickets, but he claimed bragging rights to finding the $5 million grand prize. [*Joke]
Congrats to him on the win, he deserves it!
Sounds like he rolled the dice by only concentrating on a certain area of the state. His hunch paid off, which is awesome.
Being lazy here, music*. Isn't she the lady that lived in Texas and won all that money? If it is the same PhD I'm thinking it is heard she lives in Las Vegas.
After my post I realized he probably hit some smaller prizes on all those scratch tickets, he had to have buying up the rest of the rolls??? IDK.
Won $12 on PB/PP on-line last night.
They say curiosity killed the cat, but l would like to know how much Kevin wagered to win the last remaining ticket. It had to be a shot in the dark, how so you ask? Well consider that between the time he last checked how many tickets at that price remained, to getting to all the stores he had to visit, some one or some folk could have bought the last winning ticket. This guy took a leap of faith & it paid off. I know l wouldn't that's for sure. For just a brief moment l thought of that scene in Indiana & the last Crusade where Jones takes a step out from that ledge looking into that gorge and his boot touched a surface when nothing was previously there..
Check out a guy in Houston on You Tube...ARPlatinum.
This dude buys thousands of dollars of scratchoffs, and he just posted his cost, and his wins. Despite that he hasn't had a claimer since Nov 2018.
So far this year he's spent $40,825 and won $29,675.
Interesting to watch him go thru one ticket after another.
Last post on this: Is NC that small that you can visit 40 stores & know you're covered all your bets?
The article said he targeted the western part of the state, where he thought the last ticket might be. NC is as big as CA and some other states, but still, it's big enough.
As for Joan Ginther. People forget she won a Lotto Texas jackpot,which gave her a bankroll and a plan to search for scratchoffs.
I watch his new adventures every Monday or Tuesday night. He does purchase some scratchers.... Too much for my blood.
He had a real good feeling because nearly all top prizes are in the Western part of the state.
Congrats to Kevin Clark! That kind of system has to have been used by many other players over the years, but he was lucky enough for it to work out for him!
In Florida this would be an exhaustive effort. Four hours of jackpot hunting wouldn't cut it. In Florida just because a jackpot is remaining available doesn't mean that winning ticket has even left the printing press at the warehouse.
In Florida, all of the major winning tickets are in the warehouse. The vast majority are losers. The best way to win with a scratch off is to focus on one series and buy up all the tickets from the local area retailer. Most would wait until most of the prizes have been claimed after one year before buying the remaining tickets. It's best to do this search in a small local town that has a small local population...
I'm really trying very hard not to talk but I agree sounds fishy , smelly , and whatever else you want to call it. If he did win (honestly) well kudo's for him.... but knowing our fair state I would really like to see the camera's rolled back at all 40 stores and this fellow buying each and every one. Most (big prizes) are won in the western part of the state with a few poverty counties to win here and there so they don't have to pay that much in school funding the next school year (doesn't matter where you move its what county the prize was won in) I sincerely hope this is on the up and up but people are saying its just another ploy to sell old tickets and this is nothing more than that . I did read about a man who started his trek out in western nc and won in wilmington nc on a big prize payout so maybe who knows he actually did. maybe its like the old country store ( I forgot where it is) but its a mom and pop store in the mountains that sells the most winning tickets in our entire state. 800 $ for a 5 million investment I could do that but I'd probably lose I'm not that good at scratchers lol doesn't incite me to buy them either b/c its not my game or my luck (maybe one day) I buy the $30 tickets and lose lose lose although a few weeks ago I did win $500 probably just paid myself back. Its all a game of chance his odds and favors were on his side and his strategy paid off. I hope he doesn't gamble his wins away
and PS
Maybe this guy told the lottery office he went to that many stores and bought that many tickets ? who knows they are probably just reporting what the customer told them happened .......just trying to take the NCEL side for a moment .....something to think about
He got REALLY lucky... the winning ticket could have been in his own neighborhood, but no one bought it yet.. like a gas station or a small quick mart store that not too many people go to. If more people try this tactic and win, maybe the each states' lottery will rethink its ticket distribution.
Exactly!
Fishy I believe he won but not the 40 stores in 4 hours which would be impossible even if they were all in the same city. He had to scan them with his phone after each purchase undoubtedly. Somehow he got a list of where the stores were that were selling them. The western part of the state covered in 4 hours isn't humanly possible. He must of scored on the 6th to 10th store he hit. He couldn't of brought that much cash with him. Something is not right with this store or fable.
I agree with you Kittylover. I just saw on the NCEL website that another player just won $1 Million on a scratch off ticket which was purchased in the Western part of the state. The Western part of the state isn't very populous compared to the Central part of the state yet winning tickets are often purchased there.
Good for Kevin! California doesn't even post where their winners are found.
Agreed. And as history has shown, the state lottery can and has frozen payouts.
No thanks. I'm not waiting years for what can be turned over in a day.
Not skeptical. Realistic.