Hope Mills man using $750,000 lottery prize to take grandmother on cruise

Jonathan Davis stopped at the Kwik Shop on U.S. Highway 301 in Parkston to purchase a Coke and a $10 Jumbo Bucks scratch-off ticket on Friday morning. When he scratched off the tickets in his truck, he was shocked.

"I just stared at the ticket,” said Davis, who installs fireplaces for a living. “I wasn’t sure what to think. I just wanted to make sure it was real.”

Davis claimed his prize a few hours later at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $530,628. He said he will take his grandmother on a cruise and use the money to start a savings account for each of his sons. He will also save for retirement.

"She loves being able to get out of the house and explore,” Davis said of his grandma. “It’s something we can do together as a family.”

Ticket sales from games like Jumbo Bucks make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $700 million a year for education. For details on how lottery funds have made a difference in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.