No joke. NC man’s $1 April Fool’s lottery ticket hit a jackpot, officials say
A man in the North Carolina mountains didn’t believe it at first when he hit a jackpot on a $1 ticket in the popular Cash 5 game, lottery officials said Saturday.
Who could blame him?
“It was April Fool’s,” John Bubba of the Buncombe County community of Leicester said with a laugh when he claimed his $216,523 Cash 5 prize, according to a lottery news release.
Bubba showed up at lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Friday, officials said.
After taxes, he took home $154,815.
Bubba beat odds of 1 in 962,598, according to the Cash 5 game page on nclottery.com.
He had finished mowing his lawn and decided to drive to Old New Found Grocery in Leicester and take a chance on the game.
His ticket matched all of the white balls in the April 1 drawing, according to the lottery. The numbers were 4, 8, 25, 33 and 38.
“I feel real good,” he said.
He’ll pay off his house and share some of the jackpot with his adult children, he said.
Players can buy tickets for the Cash 5 and five other lottery games at lottery retailers and through online play at nclottery.com and on the lottery app.
Saturday’s Cash 5 jackpot was $120,000, according to the Cash 5 game page. Drawings are nightly at 11:22 p.m.
This story was originally published April 7, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "No joke. NC man’s $1 April Fool’s lottery ticket hit a jackpot, officials say."