Timiaya Ellison of Charlotte was shocked to learn that her Cash 5 ticket was one of two to hit the largest Cash 5 jackpot in game history.

“When I found out, I thought I had won half of the amount I did,” she recalled, laughing. “I was getting my hair done yesterday and I said, ‘Oh, let me check my lotto and see if I can use any of it for some gas.’ I was looking at it, just standing there like O-M-G, and misread it because I was so flustered!”

When Ellison found out she won $1.05 million, she was “through the roof.”

Ellison purchased her winning Quick Pick ticket at the Circle K on University Boulevard in Charlotte.

The other winning ticket was purchased at the Circle K on John J Delaney Drive in Charlotte.

Both tickets matched the numbers on all five balls, 3-5-34-40-41. The record-high jackpot marked the first time a Cash 5 jackpot estimate reached over $2 million in the game’s history.

Ellison claimed her half of the jackpot, $1,054,439, on Thursday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required federal and state tax withholdings, she took home $746,016.

Carolina Cash 5 tickets are $1 and drawings are held every night. Thursday’s jackpot is $154,000.

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 on 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 per year for education. For details on how $60 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Mecklenburg County in 2020, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.