Landscaper lends helping hand to neighbor — and it pays off with a big NC lottery win

A North Carolina man helped out a friend — and scored a big lottery prize on his way home.

Ronald McCorrister was working on his neighbor’s car when the two had to make a stop for gas, the N.C. Education Lottery said Monday in a news release.

“He took me to a gas station that I don’t usually go to,” McCorrister told lottery officials. “I went in and bought a couple of tickets.”

While inside, officials said McCorrister tried his luck on the Millionaire Maker game. It turns out, the $30 ticket he bought at the Hot Spot convenience store in Western North Carolina was worth much more.

In the car, McCorrister said he scratched off the ticket and discovered a $100,000 prize.

“I just kept looking to make sure I was really seeing what I was looking at,” McCorrister said in the news release. “I showed my buddy and he gave me like 15 high-fives on that drive home.”

McCorrister, who does landscaping and construction work, said he’s not sure how he will spend the prize money. But he’s eyeing a new car and a night out with his wife, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.

“It’s just crazy,” McCorrister told lottery officials. “My wife and I are definitely going somewhere really nice to eat.”

After taxes, McCorrister got to take $70,759 back to his home in Sylva, a town in Jackson County that is roughly 50 miles southwest of Asheville, officials said.

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