Lottery player hits jackpot — and can’t help but scream. ‘Probably woke the neighbors’

A lottery player hit the jackpot — and couldn’t contain his excitement.

“I woke up my wife screaming, ‘Get up, we won,’” Thomas Kemp told the North Carolina Education Lottery. “I probably woke the neighbors too.”

Kemp celebrated his $110,000 windfall one morning after he tried his luck on the Cash 5 game. As usual, family members’ birthdays inspired the numbers he picked for the drawing.

“I’ve been using them for a long time and it paid off,” the Charlotte-area man told lottery officials in a Sept. 23 news release.

Kemp spent $1 on his lucky ticket at a BP gas station in Indian Trail, a roughly 15-mile drive southeast from uptown Charlotte. The ticket beat nearly 1-in-a-million odds to match all of the numbers picked in the Sept. 18 drawing.

“I’m still shaking,” the winner told lottery officials. “It was an exciting moment.”

Kemp, a Union County resident, kept $78,653 after taxes. Now, he hopes to pay bills and share his winnings with his children. A potential trip to California also is on his radar.

It’s not the first time a lottery player showed a burst of emotion. Another North Carolina winner screamed and fell to her knees when she discovered she was getting richer, McClatchy News reported in January.

Many people can gamble or play games of chance without harm. However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families.

If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.

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