Dobson lottery prize of $110,000 goes unclaimed

Anyone who was in Dobson around mid-May and happened to buy a lottery ticket could have $110,000 waiting which he or she might not even know about.

North Carolina Education Lottery officials have announced that this sum is from a Cash 5 jackpot won in a May 16 drawing.

They are advising persons who play the Cash 5 game and buy tickets in Dobson to double-check any old tickets they might have to see if any is the winner.

The lucky ticket was bought at the Sheetz convenience store on South Main Street in Dobson.

There is a sense of urgency involved, due to players having 180 days to claim a prize from a lottery draw game.

This means the $110,000 Cash 5 jackpot won in the May 16 drawing expires on Nov. 12.

Lottery officials say any number of factors can keep a lottery prize from being claimed. Sometimes tickets get misplaced or players forget to check if they won.

“It can be a case where they just didn’t realize they were a winner,” lottery spokesman Adam Owens said Tuesday from Raleigh.

Sometimes the reason for a winner not coming forward to claim lottery prizes is not known.

“If they go unclaimed, we never actually hear from the people, obviously,” Owens said.

“It’s a shame.”

Realizing the difference a winning ticket can make in a person’s life, lottery personnel seek to help players get their cash.

They monitor all the big prizes that have yet to be claimed and announce this publicly in order to help exhaust every means possible to unite participants with winnings before the expiration dates.

In addition to the unclaimed $110,000 Cash 5 jackpot from the ticket bought in Dobson, lottery officials have announced three other locations where this has occurred.

These include a $150,000 Powerball prize won in the April 6 drawing by an unknown party in Raleigh; a $156,060 Cash 5 jackpot from the April 11 drawing from a ticket bought in Wilson; and a $164,308 Cash 5 jackpot won in the June 3 drawing by a ticket holder in Southern Pines.

Those prizes also have fall expiration dates.