photo credit: one line man // Shutterstock

This week, a North Carolina man in Cumberland County won the $344.6 million Powerball Jackpot with a ticket purchased in Hope Mills.

The winner, Charles W. Jackson Jr., was revealed at a news conference at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday at the North Carolina Education Lottery Headquarters in Raleigh. Jackson, 66, has decided to take a lump sum payment of $223 million, which amounts to an after-tax payment of $158 million according to lottery officials.

“I never expected to win, so I just got lucky,” Jackson said during a news conference.

During the news conference, he said plans to give some money to St. Jude’s, Shriner’s Hospital and the Wounded Warrior Project.Another $1 million will go to his brother.

Jackson said he had to use Google to find out how much the ticket was worth after his wife asked him, and he didn’t know.

Jackson said he picked his winner numbers partially from a fortune cookie at a Vietnamese restaurant.

Jackson is already retired, he previously had a military store on Riley Road near Fort Bragg.

Lottery officials said it’s the largest jackpot ever won in North Carolina involving a single ticket. It’s the fifth time a North Carolina ticket claimed a Powerball jackpot.

Source: WNCT