Shirley Tucker of Greensboro was sitting in her kitchen on Tuesday morning when her husband walked in and told her she won Monday’s $423,684 Cash 5 jackpot.
“I was sitting at the table and my husband came downstairs,” she said. “He actually had the ticket because I leave them on our nightstand and when he checks his, he checks mine as well. And when he came downstairs he had it in his hand and he was like, ‘You got it!’”
Tucker said she was shocked and didn’t believe her husband at first.
“I have the lottery app on my phone and I said, ‘Well, give it here, let me scan it and see,” she recalled. “So, I scanned it and it came up, ‘You have to go to the lottery headquarters.’”
Tucker purchased her winning Quick Pick ticket from Jay’s Grocery on Summit Avenue in Greensboro.
Her ticket was one of two that matched all five numbers in the drawing. The winner of the other half bought the ticket at the Everest Mart on U.S. 401 South in Warrenton and has 180 days to claim their prize.
“I’m equally as happy though for them as well,” said Tucker on splitting the jackpot. “I hope that it’s gonna be beneficial for them, too.”
She claimed her half of the jackpot, $211,842, at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Tuesday. After required federal and state tax withholdings, she took home $149,879.
“We have five grandchildren, so we will get them a little bit more over Christmas this year,” said Tucker. “We do have some bills that we need to pay off and then we’ll put the rest in savings.”
Carolina Cash 5 tickets are $1 and drawings are held every night. Tuesday’s jackpot is $100,000.
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 $725 million a year for education. For details on how lottery funds have helped all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.