COLUMBIA, SC (May 21, 2026) – A trip to the grocery store for a loaf of bread ended in a $500,000 windfall for a Midlands man.
“It was pretty amazing,” the winner admitted to South Carolina Education Lottery officials.
The winner, who does not wish to be identified, says he was buying a loaf of bread at the Piggly Wiggly on S. Guignard Dr. in Sumter when he decided to buy a $10 lottery ticket too.
He scratched the ticket when he got home from the store.
“It was surreal,” he said. “You’re not sure about what you are seeing. I was checking the number of zeros.”
He counted five zeroes after the initial $5 he scratched off to give him the half-a-million dollar win.
As for his plans, he says nothing has changed yet.
The odds of winning $500,000 in the Ruby Red Treasures game are 1 in 1,176,000. One more top prize remains in the game.
And he’s not the only winner. Piggly Wiggly #88 in Sumter received a commission of $5,000 for selling the claimed ticket.
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