Longtime electrician hits jackpot in NC. The lottery prize left him ‘shaking’
A longtime electrician hit the jackpot — and now, he plans to save for retirement.
“I couldn’t believe it,” winner Rudolph Ruggiero Jr. told the North Carolina Education Lottery. “I was shaking.”
Ruggiero won $435,915 after stopping at a Harris Teeter grocery store in Greensboro. While there, he tried his luck on the Carolina Cash 5 game, lottery officials wrote in an Aug. 20 news release.
It turns out, the man’s $1 ticket held a big surprise. It beat 1-in-962,598 odds to match all the numbers picked in the Aug. 13 drawing.
“I thought maybe I won a couple thousand dollars or something,” Ruggiero said.
But he didn’t realize his ticket was worth much more. He was at a lottery claim center when a worker checked his numbers, revealing the jackpot win.
“The most I’ve won before this is 50 bucks,” said Ruggiero, a Greensboro resident.
The winner, who has worked as an electrician for five decades, kept $312,770 after taxes. In addition to planning for retirement, he hopes to deposit some of his prize money into the bank.
It’s not the first time someone with a long career has bought a lucky lottery ticket. A North Carolina teacher of more than 30 years wanted to put aside money for retirement after his life-changing win, McClatchy News reported in March.
This story was originally published August 20, 2025 at 12:01 PM with the headline "Longtime electrician hits jackpot in NC. The lottery prize left him ‘shaking’."
