Charlotte area man went to buy twin sons a birthday cake and became a millionaire
A Charlotte area man went to buy his 11-year-old twin sons a birthday cake and returned home a millionaire.
Gary Grant of Mount Holly was buying the cake when he decided to check whether any of his old Cash 5 lottery tickets had won anything, North Carolina Education Lottery officials said in a news release Thursday.
He soon learned one of the tickets hit a $1,127,585 jackpot, officials said. The odds of matching all five white balls and winning the Cash 5 jackpot are 1 in 962,598, according to the lottery.
“It was my kids’ birthday, so I was going out to get a cake and I had old lottery tickets I needed to cash in,” Grant told lottery officials after claiming his prize at the lottery headquarters in Raleigh Tuesday. “I got down to the last ticket and it said, ‘Winner! Go to lottery headquarters.’ I could barely believe it.”
After taxes, he took home $797,767, according to the lottery.
Grant drives for a solid waste services company. He bought the winning Quick Pick ticket at Lee’s Quick Stop on North Main Street in Mount Holly, according to the lottery. He hit the jackpot in the May 22 drawing.
He learned of his win after stopping at the same store during his birthday-cake run to scan his tickets, lottery officials said.
Grant immediately called his wife when he learned he’d won.
“I told her, ‘You’ll never believe it, but I just won a million dollars,’” he told lottery officials. “When she found out I won, she started crying.”
Grant plans to buy a new home. He told lottery officials he will continue working and “use the rest wisely.”
“It was an amazing feeling and still is hard to believe,” Grant said. “I was holding on to a wish and a dream. I never would have thought that I’d be a winner.”
Cash 5 is a statewide draw game in which players have a nightly chance of winning a jackpot. The jackpot for Thursday’s drawing is $100,000.
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 11:29 AM.