Woman chooses dates from family birthdays on lottery ticket, wins $120K

RALEIGH — Melinda Boyce, of Denver, changed her strategy when playing Cash 5 and that decision paid off with a $120,000 jackpot win.

“I used to do Quick Picks but I’ve been using family birthday numbers since January after seeing that someone else won doing that,” she said.

Boyce said she first learned she won when she got a notification in her email.

“I started to freak out,” she laughed. “I kept saying, ‘My numbers came up, my numbers came up.’”

Boyce bought her lucky $1 ticket using Online Play in the May 22 drawing. The odds of matching numbers on all five white balls are 1 in 962,598.

She claimed her prize at lottery headquarters Wednesday in Raleigh and, after taxes, took home $85,800.

“This is just insane,” she said when she received her big check.

Boyce plans to use her winnings to pay some bills and save the rest.

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