Sanford man collects nearly half million Cash 5 jackpot

SANFORD, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Lee County man won a big Cash 5 jackpot in December but waited to collect his winnings until the new year.

It's not known why Gary Thomas, of Sanford, waited more than a month -- tax planning, perhaps; avoiding Christmas spending temptation -- but what is certain is that Thomas rang in the new year hundreds of thousands of dollars richer.

Thomas bought the winning ticket using Online Play. His ticket matched all five numbers in the Dec. 1 drawing, hitting the $496,217 jackpot.

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The odds of matching numbers on all five balls are 1 in 962,598.

He claimed his prize at lottery headquarters Thursday and, after required federal and state tax withholdings, took home $356,036 -- a happy start to the new year indeed.