‘We all went nuts.’ Store bursts into celebration over woman’s NC lottery prize

A North Carolina clerk checked a customer’s lottery ticket — then the whole store “went nuts.”

“I was screaming and jumping,” Aurelia Heiple told the N.C. Education Lottery after discovering her ticket hit the jackpot. “I didn’t know I could move like that.”

The store burst into celebration after Heiple bought a lucky lottery ticket at Murphy Express in Kinston, roughly 80 miles southeast of Raleigh. While at the store, she spent $1 on a ticket for the Cash 5 game, officials wrote in a May 30 news release.

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

After the May 19 drawing, Heiple said she returned to the Murphy Express to find out how much her ticket was worth. It turns out, she beat 1-in-962,598 odds to score the jackpot prize.

And when Heiple realized she won $216,817, she said everyone at the store started “clapping and congratulating” her.

“We all went nuts,” Jessica Trinidad, a Murphy Express worker, told the N.C. Education Lottery. “It was crazy.”

Heiple, who lives in Lenoir County, kept $154,482 after taxes. After scoring the big prize, she plans to buy a Chevrolet Camaro and put her other winnings toward investments, officials said.

It’s not the first time a lottery win sparked a celebration at a store. Recently, a North Carolina dad said he “could have danced on the counter” after a prize left him “jumping up and down.”

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