Gastonia grandpa wins $200K off scratch-off after stopping at Lowell mini-mart for soda

LOWELL, N.C. — Gastonia local Randy Stroud got thirsty and stopped at the Lowell Mini Mart for a Coke.

“My mouth couldn’t speak right,” Stroud said. “I could barely talk to the girl in the store.”

Stroud then threw in a $5 scratch-off ticket and left $200,000 richer. He says he almost never buys tickets, but when he stopped at the mini-mart on McAdenville Rd. in Lowell, a Gold Standard scratch-off caught his eye.

“I looked at it, and it just said, ‘Pick me,’” he said. “So, I did.”

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He is not only a lottery winner but also a grandfather to three boys. Stroud remembered the moment he shared the news about his big win with his oldest grandson.

“He had a big, huge grin; he reached over and bearhugged me,” Stroud said. “He said, ‘We are blessed, Papa.’ I said, ‘Yep, you are right.’”

Stroud headed to the lottery’s Raleigh headquarters on Monday and took home $142,501 after state and federal withholdings were applied.

“You always see the big numbers, and you always go, ‘Man, wouldn’t that be nice?’” he said. “You think that is never going to happen, but it happened. It just absolutely happened.”

Stroud said he plans to use his winnings to repair different parts of his home and continue restoring his 1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

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