Aaron Carroll of Hickory went to the store to buy groceries and came home with a winning Carolina Cash 5 ticket.
“Whenever I go food shopping, I’ll pick up a Cash 5 ticket,” said Carroll. “I let the machine pick my numbers. I figure it can pick them just as well as me.”
Carroll purchased the lucky $1 Quick Pick at the Food Lion on North Center Street in Hickory for the Feb. 6 drawing.
“When I checked my numbers, I thought I had only got four,” he said. “Then I looked again and saw I had all five.”
Carroll realized he had won the whole jackpot of $110,000. But he wasn’t in any rush – he knew he had 180 days to claim his prize.
“I thought, ‘This is big, I have to go to Raleigh,’” said Carroll. “But I had to wait to get my car serviced to drive all the way over here. So I put the ticket somewhere safe and then put the date in my calendar to make sure I showed up before the ticket expired!”
He finally claimed his prize on Wednesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required federal and state withholdings, he took home $77,825. Carroll, who is retired, plans to put his winnings into savings.
Cash 5 is a statewide draw game that gives players the chance to win a jackpot every single night. Tickets cost $1 and players can buy tickets at most lottery retailers and through Online Play on the lottery’s website. The jackpot for Thursday’s Cash 5 drawing is $170,000.
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