Just before heading to bed on Wednesday night, Larry Duckett Jr. of Ocean Isle Beach tried his luck on a few Cash 5 tickets and woke to find himself one of three winners of the $1,007,160 jackpot.
“I was in bed getting the ticket and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll put $20 in on this and let it ride,’” recalled Duckett. “And when I woke up this morning, my wife thought I was kidding her. It’ll be interesting to show her the check because she still doesn’t believe me!”
Duckett, a retired engineer, bought his winning Cash 5 ticket for the Nov. 4 drawing through Online Play.
“I went to bed thinking, ‘Well, I could win. Nah, I won’t win, but it was worth a try,’” he said. “Then I woke up and the email message said, ‘Your winnings have arrived,’ and I opened it up and was like, ‘I can’t believe this. No, let me read this again.”
He claimed his prize Thursday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. He received one third of the jackpot, $335,720. After required federal and state tax withholdings, he took home $237,529.
“This is like the ultimate fun money to me,” said Duckett. He said he plans to buy his wife a new car and use the rest to enjoy retirement.
Carolina Cash 5 tickets are $1 and drawings are held every night. Friday’s jackpot is $110,000. The odds of winning a jackpot are 1 in 962,598.
Cash 5 is one of four lottery games in North Carolina where players have the option of buying their tickets through Online Play either through the lottery’s website or with the NC Lottery Official Mobile App.
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