Susan Gray of Statesville accidently purchased two tickets for Saturday’s Cash 5 drawing and won the entire $305,046 jackpot.

“Those are numbers I’ve been using for years,” she said. “My birthday.”

Gray purchased two tickets, using the same set of numbers, for Saturday’s drawing from the Kangaroo Express on Safriet Road in Statesville.

“I thought it was a different draw,” Gray explained on why she purchased two tickets with the same numbers. “It was really an accident that I played both. I was really shocked. I couldn’t believe it.”

Gray’s purchase paid off when she claimed her prize Monday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required federal and state tax withholdings, she took home $215,826.

Carolina Cash 5 tickets are $1 and drawings are held every night. Wednesday’s jackpot is $100,000. 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 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 per year for education. For details on how $10.1 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Iredell County in 2020, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.