Couple hits jackpot after using special dates to choose Virginia lottery numbers

A couple in Virginia used numbers of birthdays and anniversaries on their lottery ticket — and they won the jackpot.

Patricia Douglas and her husband, from North Chesterfield, won the $120,000 jackpot prize on Jan. 27 in the Virginia Lottery’s Cash 5 with EZ Match game, according to a news release.

The husband was checking the winning numbers when he asked his wife, “Where’s the ticket?” he exclaimed, according to lottery officials. “Those are our numbers!”

The winning numbers were 4-8-10-14-26, a combination of birthdays and anniversaries, the release says.

“Is this really happening?” the woman thought when she discovered they were the jackpot winners.

The odds of matching all five numbers to win the jackpot are low, only 1 in 749,398, lottery officials said.

The lottery game that the couple played, Cash 5 with EZ Match, has a rolling jackpot, starting at a minimum of $100,000. If nobody gets all five winning numbers, the jackpot grows for the following drawing, lottery officials say.

The ticket was bought at a Kroger in Richmond.