Porch vision sends South Carolina man to $500,000 lottery win

A South Carolina man says a sudden porch-side vision sent him straight to a Greenville store, where a $10 scratch-off ticket turned into a $500,000 payday.

The Upstate resident told South Carolina Education Lottery officials he was sitting outside when he felt prompted to play, according to UPI. The man, whose name was not released in the report, said the feeling came with a specific instruction.

“I had a vision,” he told lottery officials. “It told me to go and get a ticket at the Cracker Jack store, and I got two of them.”

The store was the Cracker Jack on Pendleton Street in Greenville, according to the South Carolina Education Lottery. The man bought two $10 scratch-off tickets there.

One of those tickets was for the Gold Vault Extra Play! game, lottery officials said. That ticket carried the top moment of the day: a $500,000 prize.

The win did not send him into an instant party, at least not according to what he told lottery officials. He said he had somewhere else to be.

“I had to go to work,” the winner said.

The South Carolina Education Lottery said the man plans to give part of the prize money to his family. The report also said he planned to share the rest.

“I’m blessed to have it,” he told lottery officials.

UPI reported the win on July 16. The lottery account did not include additional details about the man’s job, whether he chose a particular payout option, or when the winning ticket was claimed.

The ticket came from a scratch-off game, a format in which players buy a physical ticket and reveal symbols or numbers to see whether it carries a prize. In this case, the winning ticket was one of two purchased after the man’s reported urge to play.

The South Carolina Education Lottery regularly publicizes prize claims while allowing some winners to remain unnamed in public announcements. In this case, the winner was identified only as an Upstate man.

This story draws on original reporting from UPI.