GASTON COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — Randy Stroud, of Gastonia, bought a $5 scratch-off ticket on Saturday morning and won a $200,000 lottery prize, according to an NC Education Lottery news release.

“My mouth couldn’t speak right,” Stroud said. “I could barely talk to the girl in the store.”

Stroud said he stopped for a Coke Zero at the Lowell Mini Mart on McAdenville Road in Lowell and bought his winning ticket.

Stroud, a grandfather of three boys, recalled the moment he told his eldest grandson about his win.

“He had a big huge grin. He reached over and bearhugged me,” Stroud said. “He said, ‘We are blessed, Papa.’ I said, ‘Yep, you are right.’”

Stroud collected his prize Monday at the lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required federal and state withholdings, he took home $142,501.

“You always see the big numbers, and you always go, ‘Man, wouldn’t that be nice,’” he said. “You think that is never going to happen, but it happened. It just absolutely happened.”

He said he wants to use the winnings to help do some home repairs and continue restoring a 1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.