‘I just started crying.’ NC woman stops at Food Lion for groceries, wins lottery
A North Carolina woman scored a top lottery game prize when she decided to buy a $10 scratch-off ticket on her mid-week run for groceries to Food Lion, N.C. lottery officials said Friday night.
“I just started crying,” Raeford resident Linda Virgil said when she claimed her $700,000 Triple 7 ticket prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Friday, according to a lottery news release.
Raeford is about 22 miles west of Fayetteville.
Virgil beat odds of 1 in 3.7 million, according to the Triple 7 page on NCLottery.com.
After taxes, she took home $498,753, according to the lottery.
She bought the ticket at the Food Lion on Cliffdale Road in Fayetteville, officials said.
Virgil credited a friendly Food Lion employee for confirming her win, after she scratched and scanned her ticket to check for prizes. She plans to return to the store to thank the worker, she said.
Triple 7 debuted in December with four top prizes. One remains to be won, according to the game page.
“I’m going to share it with my kids and grandchildren,” Virgil said about her plans for the money.
