Truck Driver Wins Jackpot After Chance Lottery Ticket Purchase
An Alabama truck driver is much richer after winning $120,000 thanks to five randomly selected numbers, per a press release from the North Carolina Education Lottery.
Jonathan Hodge was traveling through North Carolina when he decided on a whim to purchase a Cash 5 ticket. Cash 5 gives players a chance to win increasing sums of money if they match between two to four out of five numbers. "For just $1, you get a shot at jackpots that start at $100,000 and it keeps climbing until somebody wins it all," the website explains. You can either pick your own numbers or use the Quick Pick option as Hodge did, which lets the merchant select five numbers at random. His card matched all five balls in the drawing, a chance of 1 in 962,598, according to the release.
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Hodge apparently told the lottery system that he couldn’t believe he’d actually won, let alone matched all five numbers. “I kept reading it over and over,” he said, calling his win “pretty cool.”
Hodge won $120,000, which after state and federal taxes amounted to $86,109. Hodge, referring to his winnings as “a nice little cushion,” says he plans to use the winnings to put a down payment on a home. “I’ve always said, ‘When it’s my time, then it’s my time,'” he said.
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