Lottery player can’t sleep after big NC jackpot. ‘I was like a kid at Christmas’
A lottery player hit the jackpot — then came a restless night.
“I told my wife and she couldn’t go to sleep either,” prize winner Lee Cox told the North Carolina Education Lottery. “She was so excited.”
The husband has a lot to celebrate after stopping at the iMarket store in the mountain town of Asheville. While there, he spent $1 on a ticket for the Carolina Cash 5 game.
It turns out, Cox’s ticket matched all the numbers picked in the Sept. 19 drawing, making it worth $120,000. He “could barely control his excitement” when he learned how much he won, lottery officials wrote in a news release.
“I was like a kid at Christmas,” the winner said.
Cox’s prize kicked off a lucky weekend for North Carolina lottery players. The day after his win, another Cash 5 player scored $100,000, McClatchy News reported.
Cox, who lives in Asheville, kept $86,101 after taxes. Now, he hopes to put his prize money toward property in Holden Beach, which lies along the coast.
This story was originally published September 24, 2025 at 8:18 AM with the headline "Lottery player can’t sleep after big NC jackpot. ‘I was like a kid at Christmas’."
