RALEIGH – A major celebration broke out in a Kinston convenience store after Aurelia Heiple, a Kinston resident, discovered she was the winner of a $216,817 Cash 5 jackpot. 

“I was screaming and jumping,” Heiple laughed. “I didn’t know I could move like that.”    

She bought the $1 Quick Pick ticket in the May 19 drawing from Murphy Express on West Vernon Avenue in Kinston. When she went back to the store several days later to check her ticket, the clerk told her it was a winner. Heiple said everyone in the store reacted to her big win. 

“They were all clapping and congratulating me,” she said.  

Jessica Trinidad, a Murphy Express employee, was working when Heiple won. 

“We all went nuts,” Trinidad recalled. “It was crazy.” 

Heiple said she only started playing Cash 5 recently. 

“I never played Cash 5 until my brother got me playing,” she said. “This was only the third time I’ve ever played.” 

Heiple arrived at lottery headquarters to collect her prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $154,482.  

She plans to use her winnings to buy a Chevrolet Camaro and do some investing.  

Cash 5 is one of six lottery games in North Carolina where players have the option of buying their tickets through a retail location or with Online Play. The odds of winning a Cash 5 jackpot are 1 in 962,598. Tuesday’s jackpot is $100,000. 

Ticket sales from draw games such as Cash 5 make it possible for the lottery to raise $2.5 million a day on average for education. For details on how $3.8 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Lenoir County last year, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.