Gary Shelton II of Mount Airy went to the store to buy a Powerball ticket, added a $1 Cash 5 ticket right before leaving, and won a $132,313 Cash 5 jackpot.
“When the Powerball gets high I usually go buy one ticket and I just thought, ‘Well, I have a dollar left over so let me get one Cash 5 ticket too,’” he said.
Shelton, a 53-year-old educator, bought his lucky Quick Pick ticket for the Jan. 28 drawing from Mayberry Mart on East Pine Street in Mount Airy.
“It still doesn’t seem real,” he said. “It seems like the stars are aligning for us this year.”
Shelton arrived at lottery headquarters Monday to collect his prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $94,273.
“I can’t even put into words what this means,” Shelton said. “It’s just a blessing.”
Shelton said he has always liked bluegrass music so he used some of his winnings to buy a Martin guitar. He said he will buy his wife and daughter whatever they want as well and put the rest in savings.
Cash 5 is one of six lottery games in North Carolina where players have the option of buying their tickets through a retail location or Online Play, either through the lottery’s website or with the NC Lottery Official Mobile App.
The odds of winning a Cash 5 jackpot are 1 in 962,598. Tuesday’s jackpot is $100,000.
Ticket sales from draw games make it possible for the lottery to raise an average of $2.5 million a day for education. Last year, Surry County received $6 million, including a $1.7 million school construction grant from money raised by the lottery, to support education programs in the county.
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