Gregory Warren of Franklinville stopped for gas after work and decided to try his luck on a Cash 5 ticket that ended up winning him half of a $391,870 jackpot.
“I don’t buy lottery tickets very often,” said Warren. “It just so happens I picked a good day to buy one!”
Warren, a mechanic, bought his Quick Pick ticket for the Sept. 29 drawing from the BP on U.S. 64 East in Asheboro. He didn’t look at that ticket again until Monday night when he remembered he needed to check his numbers.
“I forgot about it,” he said Tuesday as he collected his prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. “I’m still kind of shocked. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night. Too much excitement!”
Warren’s ticket was one of two that split the $391,870 jackpot. After required federal and state tax withholdings he took home $138,624.
He says this money may afford him the opportunity to change careers.
“I think I’m going into business for myself mowing yards,” said Warren. “I’ve got a 14-year-old son and I wanna get a business started so that he’ll have something to do when he graduates from high school.”
The second half of the jackpot was claimed by Danielle Godette of New Bern.
Cash 5 tickets are $1 with drawings held every night. Thursday’s night’s jackpot is $215,000. The odds of winning a Cash 5 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.
Ticket sales from draw games like Cash 5 make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $900 million per year for education. For details on how $8.2 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Randolph County in 2020, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.
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