Welcome to HickoryRecord.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

HickoryRecord.com - Hickory Daily Record

HomeNewsEntertainmentSportsLifestylesOpinionCommunityWeather Online Tools Jobs | Real Estate | Shopping | Classified

Catawba woman hits jackpot

By Richard Gould | Hickory Daily Record

Published: August 28, 2009

CATAWBA - Judy Mullins of Catawba said she's bought lottery tickets now and then since the North Carolina Education Lottery began almost three and a half years ago. She's always been skeptical about whether she'd ever win any money.

All that changed Saturday night when she won the "$500,000 Jackpot" scratch-off game.

Mullins said she decided to buy a Powerball ticket from the Petro Express on Conover Boulevard in Conover on her way home from a Mexican dinner with her husband. It was about 9:30 p.m.
"It was just before they turn the machines off," she said.

On a whim she bought the $10 ticket after the woman ahead of her in line bought one. She bought a couple of one-dollar tickets too.

When she got home, she scratched her tickets.

"I saw $500 and just kept scratching and seeing more zeroes," Mullins said. "I couldn't believe it."

She'd won the top prize — $500,000. It's worth $340,003.20 after taxes, according to Neosha Smith, public information officer with the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Mullins' other two tickets were winners too. She won $15 on one and $2 on the other.

She went to Raleigh to collect her winnings Monday afternoon, and she's got a plan for how to spend the money — she's going to Disney World with her 4-year-old grandson.

Mullins said she's had five back surgeries and plans to use her winnings to pay some medical bills and pay off her home.

"It would just be nice to not have to worry about bills every week," she said.

She also plans to help her children and donate some of the money to her church, Calvary Hill Free Will Baptist Church in Catawba.

Five days after winning the top prize, Mullins said she's still so excited that she's having trouble sleeping.

"I've just never won anything in my life," she said.