A $1 Cash 5 Quick Pick ticket proved to be the winning ingredient for Shaquille Johnson of Fayetteville when he won a $421,434 jackpot in Monday’s drawing.
“My heart was beating so fast,” Johnson recalled. “I just froze.”
Johnson, a 27-year-old line cook, said he decided to buy a ticket from the Short Stop on Morganton Road in Fayetteville after he noticed the Cash 5 jackpot amount.
“I like to play when the jackpot gets high,” he said.
When he got home from work Monday night, he went to the lottery’s website to check the results of the drawing.
“I saw the jackpot was back down to $100,000 so I figured someone else won,” he laughed.
Johnson said he did a double take when he checked his numbers and saw they matched.
“I was just thinking, ‘Wow. This is amazing,’” he said. “I was in total shock.”
Johnson arrived at lottery headquarters Tuesday to collect his prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $300,272.
He said he will use the winnings to buy a car and a house.
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.
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