Theodore Watson almost let a Sunday slip by without buying his usual newspaper and lottery ticket.
The Goose Creek resident was rushing to return a rental car while his wife was waiting on him, when he decided to stop anyway. He pulled over at the Murphy Express #8552 on Rivers Ave. in North Charleston and grabbed the paper and scratch-off.
Parked at a stoplight he scratched the ticket for a $200,000 win. He called his wife to tell her not to be mad he was running late, but he’d just won the Lottery.
“She told me she would kill me if I was lying,” he said.
Today she’s driving a new car.
“For 18 years my wife has tolerated me buying used cars,” he said.
Their oldest car of 16 years with 250,000 miles was on the fritz when they rented a car in the first place. It, like their boys’ college fund, isn’t a worry any more.
Watson’s Sunday routine remains unchanged.
“I’ve played scratch tickets since I was 18,” he said. “It comes from my mom, who growing up would buy them at the gas station. I watched her scratch them for fun and that’s why I do it.”
Watson claimed the first top prize of $200,000 in the $10 Cool Turquoise 7sgame. The odds of winning the top prize were 1 in 576,000.
For selling the claimed ticket, Murphy Express #8552 in North Charleston received a commission of $2,000.
Since the start of the Lottery in 2002, more than one million college scholarships and grants have been awarded to South Carolina’s students. In all, more than $3 billion has been transferred to support educational programs in the Palmetto State.
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