Florida hunter bags big game in N.C., a $1 million lottery prize

While on an annual deer hunting trip to North Carolina, Walter McLeod of Williston, Fla. bagged another kind of big game, a $1 million lottery prize.

“We come up to North Carolina every year to visit family and enjoy deer hunting season,” McLeod said. “We always play the lottery while we’re up here just for fun.”

That tradition paid off when the school maintenance worker and his son stopped at the Speedway on U.S. 264 Bypass in Belhaven and bought some $10 Holiday Millionaire scratch-off tickets.
  
“I gave the tickets to my son to scratch,” McLeod said. “He started screaming so loud I thought he’d gotten a snake bite at first. But then he told me we won $1 million. I couldn’t believe it. ”

McLeod claimed the prize Monday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. He had the choice of taking an annuity that has 20 payments of $50,000 a year or a lump sum of $600,000. He chose the lump sum. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $423,009. He plans to use some of the money to take his four grandchildren to Disney World.

Holiday Millionaire launched in November 2017 with three top prizes of $1 million. One top prize remains.