A broken receipt printer at a Harrisburg gas station turned into a $2 million payday for a Concord civil engineering college student, who says he never would have bought the winning Powerball ticket if his receipt had printed outside. Bram Dunehew matched all five white balls in the October 31 Halloween drawing, then watched a Power Play add-on double his prize from $1 million to $2 million.
A Receipt That Wouldn't Print Changed Everything
According to Queen City News, Dunehew bought a $3 Powerball ticket at Sam's Mart on N.C. 49 in Harrisburg on October 30 only because his gas receipt would not print outside the store. That minor inconvenience sent him inside, where he decided to grab a lottery ticket on his way out. He later reflected on just how close he came to missing out entirely.
“It's crazy because I never would have even bought that ticket if the receipt printed outside,” Dunehew said, per the outlet. The station's report notes that he said he fell over when he saw the winning result, and that Halloween is now his favorite holiday.
From Harrisburg Gas Station to Raleigh Lottery Office
Dunehew, who lives in Concord, claimed his winnings at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Monday, two days after the drawing. After tax withholdings, he walked away with $1,440,201, the outlet reported. He said he plans to use some of his newfound fortune to buy his father a Cadillac.
The win adds Dunehew's name to Cabarrus County's list of lottery success stories, built entirely on a ticket he almost didn't buy. As Queen City News noted, his five correct white balls alone would have earned him $1 million, with the Power Play purchase pushing that total to $2 million before taxes.
The win also comes in a county that receives substantial education allocations from lottery proceeds. In fiscal 2025, Cabarrus County received $16,010,822 in North Carolina Education Lottery support, part of more than $1 billion raised statewide for education programs that year. The county total appears in the lottery’s FY2025 annual report, placing the jackpot story alongside the public funding stream tied to the state lottery.
Dunehew’s result sits in a far more attainable—but still rare—tier than the jackpot: matching all five white balls has 1-in-11.6-million odds, compared with 1 in 292 million for the jackpot. The Halloween drawing also produced a $50,000 ticket in Union County, where a player matched four white balls and the Powerball; those odds were 1 in 913,129. Winners have 180 days from the drawing to claim, under the North Carolina Lottery’s drawing rules.
This Week's Jackpot Climbs Even Higher
Powerball players chasing a similar stroke of luck have an even bigger prize on the table this week. The Wednesday, November 4 drawing carries a jackpot of $835 million as an annuity, or $357.9 million in cash, per the same account. The odds of matching all the numbers for that jackpot remain 1 in 292 million.
