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.
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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.