NC couple win $1M on lottery after stopping at 7-Eleven to buy gas after Christmas shopping

A North Carolina couple won $1million on a $30 scratch-off after stopping at 7-Eleven to buy gas on Black Friday. 

Laura Keen, of Winston-Salem, stopped at the gas station on South Main Street in Kernersville after her truck's low fuel light came on. 

Keen went into the store to buy some coffee and to pick up her favorite scratch-off, Millionaire Maker, which cost $30, while her boyfriend, who was not named, pumped the gas, according to North Carolina Lottery. 

The lucky winner scratched off the game in her car a few minutes later and was overcome with emotion when she realized she had won. 

'I was screaming. He was screaming. We both were screaming,' she told the lottery. 'We were just in shock, just shock.

''We would never have won that if that gas light had not gone off.' 

Laura Keen, of Winston-Salem, stopped at the gas station after their truck's low fuel light came on. Keen went into the store to buy some coffee and to pick up her favorite scratch-off, Millionaire Maker, which cost $30

Keen and her boyfriend collected their prize on Monday after heading down to the North Carolina Lottery headquarters. 

She opted to take a lump sum, equating to $600,000. After state and federal taxes, the couple took home a little over $426,000. 

Keen plans on being 'smart' with the money, but said she might treat herself to a small vacation to celebrate her newfound wealth. 

Keen purchased the ticket at the 7-Eleven on South Main Street in Kernersville (pictured). On Monday, she opted to take the lump sum, which equated to a little over $425,000 after taxes

The North Carolina Lottery raises money for education. It rose $936million last year alone and has raised more than $9billion in total. 

'The money raised by the lottery supports education programs in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties. While the money raised each year represents only a portion of the state’s overall education budget, it still makes a difference,' it said on its website. 

When a lottery win becomes a curse! Meet the winners whose lives went downhill after scooping their huge jackpots 

By Ellen Coughlan for MailOnline 

While many dream of winning the lottery, it is not always the path to a happy life - with some winners feeling their life actually suffered following the prize.

Meghan Markle's father Thomas scooped $750,000 in 1990 - but bad investments meant he filed for bankruptcy in 2016.

Meanwhile, Michael Carroll from Norfolk was known as the Lotto Lout after he blew his £10million fortune on flash cars and partying before asking for his old job back as a bin man.

Here FEMAIL looks at those who've experienced the lottery curse...

There are a few Lotto winners for who it's all gone tragically wrong after they won hundreds of thousands or sometimes millions but end up penniless. Thomas Markle, the Duchess of Sussex's father, scooped $750,000 but filed for bankruptcy in 2016

FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY 

Thomas Markle won $750,000 on the California state lottery in 1990 when Meghan Markle was just nine. 

The father of the now Duchess of Sussex used her birth date for one of the numbers in the winning ticket. 

Markle sent a friend to pick up his lottery winnings from Chicago, according to The Times. 

Author Andrew Morton, claimed in his book Meghan: A Hollywood Princess that the win paid for Meghan's private school fees, setting her on a path to acting success and ultimately to meeting Prince Harry – who she married in May 2018.

The Hollywood lighting technician won $750,000 on the California state lottery in 1990 when Meghan Markle was just nine (pictured with her father and mother Doria Ragland)

After sending Meghan to private school, Thomas also used his winnings to help his son Thomas Jnr to set up a flower shop and he bought daughter Samantha Markle a car.

In the build-up to the royal wedding, her brother Thomas Jnr told The Mail on Sunday: 'If Meg marries Harry she'll have won the lottery of life - but dad winning the lottery helped us all.

'That money allowed Meg to go to the best schools and get the best training. Meg is someone who has always had laser focus. 

'She knows what she wants and she doesn't stop until she gets it.

'She was always the family's princess but now she's going to be a real princess and I couldn't be more proud.'

Tom also said that his dad lost a huge chunk of the money after investing in a jewelry business that failed and Thomas ended up filing for bankruptcy in 2016.

NEARLY DIED AFTER SPENDING THOUSANDS ON PLASTIC SURGERIES

Jane Park, from Edinburgh, was just 17 when she won £1 million after getting lucky with her first-ever EuroMillions ticket in 2013

Jane Park, from Edinburgh, was just 17 when she won £1 million after getting lucky with her first-ever EuroMillions ticket in 2013.

The jackpot winner paid for a boob job, Brazilian bum lift and splashed out on a string of luxury holidays and fashion accessories.

The beauty has repeatedly stated that winning the EuroMillions prize ruined her life and she even threatened to sue lottery operator Camelot for negligence, claiming someone her age shouldn't have been allowed to win.

She has confessed that it was only the advice of family members which stopped her going bust after she went on a spending spree.

In 2018 Jane said she 'nearly died' after undergoing the 'bum lift' procedure following the death of Leah Cambridge during a similar surgery in Turkey.

She suffered three heart attacks at the Elite Aftercare clinic in Izmir, Turkey, where several reality stars have also undergone the surgery.

Speaking on This Morning, Jane revealed that she underwent a bum lift in June 2017, but was left 'swollen from head to toe' and in 'constant pain'.

'It was horrible,' she said. 'I couldn't even open my eyes. It makes me sick thinking about it.

'When I woke up I was very cold and sore and I was told "you'll come round in a bit" and when I did I got up to go to the toilet and I was truly swollen from head to toe.

'I thought I was going to die. I didn't know what was wrong with me and they said I'd had a reaction to the local anesthetic.

'The aftercare wasn't good at all. I was crying and in pain. I was just told "you've paid to have this done".'  

Meanwhile, she warned of the dangers of winning huge amounts of cash on the lottery and getting in over her head.

Jane previously revealed she underwent the controversial Brazilian bum lift in 2017 after 29-year-old Leah Cambridge died during the procedure in Turkey 

She said: 'It is very easy to spend the money and once you become aware that it is yours and how much you have got it becomes even easier.

'You think "Oh well I've got the money so I can spend it". It just becomes easier to buy more stuff that you don't necessarily need.

'My family said to me "You have spent a bit of it now, you need to think about investing it". So then I got some property and put some away in the bank.

'At some point I had to take their advice or it could have went a completely different way.

'It was very overwhelming. I thought I was this massive celebrity. I thought I was Simon Cowell famous with my £1 million when I wasn't.'

In 2019, she revealed she was making money by selling racy topless pictures of herself on subscription site OnlyFans.

BLEW £10 MILLION FORTUNE BEFORE RETURNING TO JOB AS BIN MAN

Michael Carroll, from Norfolk, who was known as the Lotto Lout after he blew his £10million fortune on flash cars and partying before asking for his old job back as a bin man (pictured in 2002)

His marriage to Sandra Aitken fell apart after she accused him of sleeping with prostitutes - but they remarried years later

Part-time bin man Michael Carroll, 39, from Norfolk, scooped £9,736,131 on the National Lottery in November 2002 when he was just 19. 

Michael, who was dubbed the Lotto Lout and the King of Chavs, was wearing an electronic tag when he bought his winning ticket.  

The lottery winner admitted to becoming a 'full-blown alcoholic', and said he would go on extravagant holidays to the Costa del Sol.  

He did give £4 million to friends and family, including his aunt and uncle who raised him following his father's death when he was only 10 years old.

The rest of the money, however, funded an extreme lifestyle, including a mansion in Swaffham, Norfolk, two other homes, and racing cars.  

The decadent and mischievous antics brought a swift end to his marriage to wife Sandra Aitken after she accused him of sleeping with vice girls. She had been seven months pregnant with their daughter before he won the lottery.

Michael has made no secret of his womanizing, and claims to have bedded some 4,000 women.

Michael continued to live in extravagance, and appeared in court over 30 times, mostly arriving in sports cars and drinking booze.   

Michael, who was dubbed the Lotto Lout and the King of Chavs, was wearing an electronic tag when he bought his winning ticket

He was handed an ASBO for terrorizing his neighbors and was jailed for five months in 2004 after failing to comply with a drug treatment order imposed as part of a sentence for cocaine possession.

His accountant warned him in 2005 that he was down to his last million, and in February 2006 he was jailed for nine months for affray.

By February 2013, he was declared bankrupt and found himself back on Jobseeker's Allowance.

At his lowest point he moved into a hotel for homeless people for three months while he struggled to find work due to his reputation.

He then worked at the Walkers biscuit factory in Aberlour, before getting a license to work in an abattoir.

In 2019, it was revealed Michael had moved to Scotland and was working seven days a week as a coal miner.  

'I don't look back with any regrets that's for sure. It was ten years of fun for a pound, you can't go wrong with that,' Mickey told The Mirror.

'I wouldn't want to turn the clock back. But I live a good, free lifestyle now and I'm happier because I've got my life back.'

He still occasional plays the lottery and said if he won again, 'he'd be down the yard at six every morning just to keep out of trouble'.

In 2021 it was revealed he had remarried his ex-wife, and the two are now reportedly living a quiet life in Belfast.  

A source told the Daily Record: 'Mickey's calmed down a lot and has been living quite a nice wee life and working hard.

'Him and Sandra buried the hatchet and got back together and it has all worked out well for them.

'It happened very quickly in the last few months but they fell right back in love and are really happy together now. What's in the past has been forgotten about.'

ROBBED A DOZEN TIMES AND FAMILY MEMBERS DIED    

Jack Whittaker won a whopping £261 million ($315million) in 2002 which was then the largest lottery jackpot won by a single ticket in the United States however in 2005, Whittaker's granddaughter Brandi, (left) who he planned to leave his money to, was found dead

The West Virginia businessman won a whopping £261 million ($315million) in 2002,  which was then the largest lottery jackpot won by a single ticket in the United States.  

He chose to receive more than $113million in cash, but soon used it up and said he had been robbed a dozen times, CNN reported.

Less than a year after his win, £451, 000 ($545,000) of cash was taken from his car, which he parked at a strip club.

Five months later, $200,000 was taken from the same car in the same parking lot.

Then again in 2018, $100,000 was heisted out of his vehicle while it was parked in front of his house.   

According to the Washington Post, while boozing it up at a local bar, he loudly offered one female bartender money for sex. He later proffered $10,000 to another bartender if she would pose for him in her underwear.

Jack and his wife Jewell, right, and their granddaughter Brandi Bragg, 15, left, posed for a photograph after being interviewed on NBC's Today Show in New York in 2002

In 2004, a friend of Whittaker's granddaughter Brandi, was found lifeless from a drug overdose in Whittaker's house.   

In 2005, Brandi, who he planned to leave his money to, was found dead, wrapped in plastic with drugs in her system but the official cause of her death is not known.

Two years later, her mother - Whittaker's daughter Ginger - died of a drug overdose.

By the time of her death, he said his bank accounts were empty. He blamed his relatives deaths' on the winning ticket, assuming that they bought the drugs which killed them with his money.

'My granddaughter is dead because of the money. She was the shining star of my life, and she was what it was all about for me.

'You know, my wife said she wished that she had torn the ticket up. Well, I wish that we tore the ticket up too, 'he told ABC's 20/20.

In 2016, his Bland County, Virginia, house burnt down in a fire which had started in the kitchen.  

The fire was reported at 7am on Friday, and firefighters from five different departments arrived.

The house sustained extensive damage and was eventually declared a total loss.

Whittaker's wife was inside the home at the time, but she emerged safely.  Jack Whittaker died of natural causes on June 27 2020 at the age of 72.