Jose Naranjo of Charlotte will use his years of experience as a chef to fulfill a longtime dream after he won a $171,315 Cash 5 jackpot.
“I’m going to start a food truck,” he said. “I can take it to festivals.”
Naranjo bought his lucky $1 ticket for the Feb. 11 drawing from the QuikTrip on South Central Avenue in Locust. The odds of matching all five balls are 1 in 962,598. Naranjo said he used a specific formula to select which numbers to play.
“I chose my numbers based on the number of daysin a week, the number of weeks in February, and a two for the month of February,” he explained. “And the other numbers were birthdays.”
Naranjo found out he won after checking the numbers late at night.
“I thought it was a dream,” Naranjo recalled. “I was speechless. I couldn’t believe it was reality.”
He claimed his prize Wednesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required federal and state tax withholdings, Naranjo took home $123,364.
Cash 5 is one of six lottery games in North Carolina where players have the option of buying tickets at a retail location or with Online Play through the lottery’s website or the NC Lottery Official Mobile App. Thursday’s jackpot is $250,000.
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