North Carolina Man's Lucky Coin Scores Him $2 Million Lottery Prize

A man in North Carolina scored a huge $2 million lottery win using a lucky coin he found days prior.

Bobby Gary, of Chapel Hill, recently found an old Chuck E. Cheese coin and rather than tossing it out, he decided to keep it as it felt "like it is going to bring me luck" because it was from 2010, the same year he and his wife got married, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery.

"I was cleaning out the car and found it underneath the seat," he said. "I told myself, 'I am going to scratch with this until I get lucky."

Apparently he didn't have to wait too long as he stopped by the Harris Teeter on Hillsborough Road in Durham to pick up a Mega 7's ticket that proved to be even luckier than he could have imagined when he discovered he won the $2 million prize.

"I called my wife and told her, 'I just scratched a $2 million ticket,'" he said. "I was bawling my eyes out when I called her. I was just so happy."

Gary claimed his prize at lottery headquarters on Thursday (June 29), where he had the choice of accepting his winnings as either an annuity of $100,000 over the course of 20 years or as a one time, lump sum payment of $1.2 million. He ended up choosing the latter and took home a grand total of $851,174 after all required state and federal tax withholdings.

When asked what he plans to do with the new prize, he told lottery officials he hopes to pay bills, invest and possibly even buy a house.

"If we do it right," he said, "this sets us up for the rest of our lives."