North Carolina

Raleigh-area trucker checks lottery numbers, gets a shock: ‘What am I seeing’

A Raleigh-area man is celebrating after winning a $138,000 Cash 5 lottery jackpot.
A Raleigh-area man is celebrating after winning a $138,000 Cash 5 lottery jackpot. Photo by Giorgio Trovato via Unsplash
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Key Takeaways

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  • Bruce Morgan of Clayton matched five numbers to win a $138,239 Cash 5 jackpot.
  • Morgan bought an online ticket for the May 18 drawing and beat 1 in 962,598 odds.
  • After taxes, Morgan claimed $99,546 at lottery headquarters on June 12 and will pay bills.

A Raleigh-area man said a gut feeling led him to play the lottery. Now, he’s celebrating a huge jackpot win.

Bruce Morgan of Clayton recalled the moment he realized he netted a $138,239 Cash 5 jackpot.

“I was making a delivery and I pulled over to check my numbers and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, what am I seeing,’” the truck driver told the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Morgan bought an online ticket in the May 18 drawing and matched all five numbers, beating odds of 1 in 962,598 to snag the game’s top prize, officials said.

Lottery winning numbers

The winning numbers were 29-32-36-40-42.

“I still don’t think it has registered,” Morgan said.

He claimed his prize at lottery headquarters on Friday, June 12, and took home $99,546 after taxes.

Morgan said he already has plans for his winnings, including paying a few bills.

Other big NC lottery wins

It marks the latest in a string of hefty lottery wins across the Tar Heel State. Earlier this month, a Concord man netted a $100,000 jackpot prize on a scratch-off game he purchased at a local Harris Teeter.

Chapel Hill resident Robert Goss also won $100,000 playing Powerball in May and described his stroke of luck as “kind of a fluke.”

A lottery player in Fayetteville turned their $5 scratch-off into a $200,000 windfall and, before that, a FastPlay ticket sold at a Publix Supermarket in Cary won a $1,578,846 jackpot — the largest in the lottery game’s history, officials said.

Portions of this story previously appeared in The Charlotte Observer.

Many people can gamble or play games of chance without harm. However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families.

If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.

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This story was originally published June 16, 2026 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Raleigh-area trucker checks lottery numbers, gets a shock: ‘What am I seeing’."

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Tanasia Kenney
Sun Herald
Tanasia is a service journalism reporter at the Charlotte Observer | CharlotteFive, working remotely from Atlanta, Georgia. She covers restaurant openings/closings in Charlotte and statewide explainers for the NC Service Journalism team. She’s been with McClatchy since 2020.
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