Mom wins big in Powerball — and can’t wait to surprise her NC family with the news

A North Carolina mom won big in the Powerball game — and surprised her family members with the good news.

“I was waiting for them when they walked in the door,” Stephanie Coulter told the N.C. Education Lottery. “I didn’t want to tell them over the phone.”

Coulter celebrated the windfall with her husband and son after her Powerball ticket matched all but one number picked in the March 23 drawing. She spent an extra dollar on her ticket, doubling her $50,000 prize to $100,000, according to game rules.

“I was in disbelief,” Coulter, who lives in Clemmons, told lottery officials in a March 27 news release.

Coulter bought the lucky ticket at her go-to supermarket, a Lowes Foods in nearby Winston-Salem.

“That’s the grocery store we go to every week,” Coulter said. “You always hear about people winning in random places but I didn’t expect it to be there.”

She kept $71,501 after taxes and hopes to put the money toward a New York trip, her kids’ college tuition and investments.

Three other North Carolina lottery players scored life-changing wins in the same Powerball drawing. All were just one number from the larger jackpot prize, which stood at an estimated $758 million the night of the drawing and has since grown to about $935 million.

What to know about Powerball

To score a jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.

The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.

Tickets cost $2 and can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times vary by state.

Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.

Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.