Man hits NC lottery Cash 5 jackpot: ‘I just had a dollar and a dream.’
A South Carolina man was driving in Charlotte with a dollar left in his pocket when he thought how nice it would be to win the lottery, so he tried his luck at a QuikTrip and scored a Cash 5 jackpot, North Carolina lottery officials said this week.
“I just had a dollar and a dream,” Chester resident Lance Spencer said when he claimed his $178,158 Cash 5 jackpot at lottery headquarters in Raleigh Monday, according to a lottery news release.
And the Charlotte area had a second big winner this week: Joshua Roten, a 31-year-old maintenance worker from Statesville. His girlfriend said he “looked like a ghost” after hitting a $214,420 Fast Play jackpot, lottery officials said in a news release Wednesday.
“When it finally sunk in, I was ecstatic,” Roten said when he claimed his prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh Tuesday.
When Roten bought his ticket, the Fast Play jackpot stood at $214,420. Since he purchased a $10 ticket, he got 100% of the progressive jackpot, beating odds of 1 in 320,000, officials said.
“The first thing she said to me was, ‘Let’s go on vacation,’” Roten said. “Then we went out to celebrate at an Italian restaurant.”
After taxes, Roten took home $152,777, according to the lottery.
‘What would it be like to win’
Spencer beat odds of 1 in 962,598, according to the lottery.
Spencer bought his $1 Cash 5 ticket at the QuikTrip on Sandy Porter Road for the March 23 drawing, officials said. That’s just off South Tryon Street in the Steele Creek area.
He works nights as a driver and bought the ticket on his way to work, according to the lottery. Spencer couldn’t be reached by The Charlotte Observer Wednesday to say what type of driving he does.
“I was just driving around that night thinking about what it would be like to win,” he told lottery officials.
He realized he won only after looking up the results of the drawing later that night.
“I checked the jackpot amount first and saw someone hit it because it was back to $100,000,” Spencer said. “Then I checked my ticket and smiled. It was awesome.”
‘Make memories with my grandkids’
After taxes, Spencer took home $126,938, lottery officials said.
He said he’ll spend some of the money on home improvement projects and some of it on a vacation with his grandchildren. He’ll put the rest into savings.
“I’m going to make some good memories with my grandkids with this,” he said.
Cash 5 is among six NC lottery games where players can buy tickets at a retailer and through Online Play on NCLottery.com and the lottery app.
