CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. — A cancer survivor and his wife won a $250,000 lottery prize in Catawba County.
Marcus Pitts and his wife bought some scratch-off tickets at the Speedway on U.S. 62-70 in Hickory. They went back home and decided to scratch off their tickets.
“I was reading something else and she started screaming and hollering, ‘We won $250,000!’” Pitts said. “I said, ‘Ain’t no way, you’re wrong.’ I didn’t believe it. But then I looked at the ticket and that’s what it said.”
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Pitts said they both have battled health problems and plan to use their money to pay off medical bills. Pitts has been in remission from a form of bone cancer since 2018.
“Medical bills have taken most of our savings,” said Pitts. “We’re gonna pay off some bills and try to do a little traveling. We have two grandkids, one’s a senior getting ready to graduate college and our granddaughter will be a senior in high school, so we’re gonna help them too.”
The couple claimed their prize Thursday in Raleigh. After federal and state tax withholdings, they took home $176,876.
“I’m a very lucky man,” Pitts said.