Last-minute lottery ticket purchase leads to life changing prize for NC couple

A last second decision to return to the store for lottery tickets led to a North Carolina couple winning a six-figure jackpot, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.

Linda Denning says she and her husband were at the Breeze Thru convenience store in Pittsboro when luck played into their hands, lottery officials said in an April 8 news release.

“We were about to leave but my husband decided to go back to buy some Cash 5 tickets for us,” Denning said in the release. “It was like it was meant to be. ... It was meant for us.”

One of the tickets was worth $369,962, lottery officials said. The ticket cost just $1.

Odds of matching all five balls in the game are 1 in 962,598.

The drawing was held Feb. 26, but Denning waited until April 7 to go to lottery headquarters in Raleigh and claimed her prize.

It came to $265,448 after state and federal withholdings, officials said.

Denning, who lives in Pittsboro, told lottery officials she plans is to use the money “to do some household projects and pay bills.”

Cash 5 is a drawing in which players select five numbers from 1 to 43.

Players can also have the terminal pick numbers for them, called a “Quick Pick,” and that’s the approach that led to Denning’s jackpot, officials said.

Pittsboro is about a 30-mile drive west from Raleigh in Chatham County.

This story was originally published April 8, 2025 at 1:20 PM with the headline "Last-minute lottery ticket purchase leads to life changing prize for NC couple."