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A North Carolina man had some difficulty sleeping recently after landing a huge lottery prize.
Earlier this month, Donald Smiley, of Cherokee, purchased a $3 Quick Pick Powerball ticket for the October 9 drawing from the Catamount Travel Center in Whittier and ended up winning a $150,000 prize when his Power Play ticket matched four white balls plus the red Powerball called in the drawing, with the 3X multiplier tripling his $50,000 win, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery.
"I was so excited I didn't even know what to do," he said. "I definitely couldn't sleep."
Smiley, a retired Army veteran, told lottery officials he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him at first, but fortunately for him, the prize was all real.
"I was like, 'Am I reading this right?'" he said. "I'm still so excited."
Smiley claimed his prize at lottery headquarters on Monday (October 21), taking home a nice chunk of change in the form of $107,251 after all required state and federal tax withholdings. According to lottery officials, the Swain County man plans to use his winnings to pay some bills.
The Powerball jackpot going into Wednesday (October 23) night's drawing stands at 478 million. Though the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292 million, it has been done before.