Charlotte woman thought she won $2 but got a $445,289 jackpot instead
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sylvia Spaulding of Charlotte signed on to her lottery’s Online Play account expecting to see a $2 Cash 5 win but found a $445,289 jackpot waiting for her.
“When the numbers first came out, I looked and thought, ‘Wow, one person won all that money. Oh well,’ then I went back to sleep,” Spaulding recalled.
She said when she saw the notification in her email that she won a prize, she just assumed she won $2.
“When I went back and double-checked my numbers, that’s when I realized the winner was me,” she said. “I was in shock.”
Spaulding bought the $1 Quick Pick ticket in Monday’s drawing using Online Play on the lottery’s website. After she realized she won, Spaulding said she ran to tell her husband.
“I told him, ‘One person won the whole thing and I just found out it was me,’” she said. “He just said, ‘Wow.’”
Spaulding arrived at lottery headquarters Thursday to collect her prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $317,270.
“I don’t think it has hit me completely just yet,” Spaulding said.
She plans to put her winnings into savings.
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 with Online Play. The odds of winning a Cash 5 jackpot are 1 in 962,598. Friday’s jackpot is $137,000.
Ticket sales from draw games such as Cash 5 make it possible for the lottery to raise $2.5 million a day on average for education. For details on how $61.8 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Mecklenburg County last year, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.
