CRAVEN COUNTY, N.C. — The Christmas Day Powerball drawing delivered the best present ever to Floyd Cox of Dover, a Vietnam War veteran, when he won a $100,000 prize, according to an NC Education Lottery news release.
Cox, a retired painter, said his Powerball present took the No. 1 ranking because it was a “once in a lifetime present.”
He became the top prize winner in North Carolina in the drawing while two others won a $50,000 prize. In all, 19,667 North Carolina lottery players got a Powerball present, ranging in value from $4 to Cox’s $100,000.
His good luck started Christmas Day when he stopped at the Vanceboro Food Mart on N.C. 43 in Vanceboro and bought a Quick Pick ticket.
He said he discovered his present the next morning when he checked his Powerball numbers on the lottery’s smartphone app.
“Like the birth of a new day,” Cox said.
He claimed the prize Friday at the lottery headquarters.
After required state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $70,751. He said he planned to use the money to help his four children and may take a trip to Times Square for the New Year’s Eve celebration.
Cox’s $3 Power Play ticket matched numbers on four of the white balls and the Powerball to win $50,000. The prize doubled when the 2X multiplier was drawn. The ticket beat odds of one in 913,129. Since no one won the Christmas Day jackpot, it now stands at $200 million, or $134.3 million as cash, in Saturday’s jackpot.
Two other players had the same luck as Cox and their $2 tickets won a $50,000 prize. One ticket was sold at the Gas & Go on Carowinds Boulevard in Charlotte and the other at Speedway on N.C. 24 in Newport in Carteret County.