Arlington man wins $470,000

Arlington – Shaun Murphy still can’t believe he won the lottery.

He woke up in the morning March 12 thinking it would be an average work day but things changed when he learned he was the winner of $470,000 from Washington’s Lottery with a Hit 5 ticket.

Murphy stops by Trafton General Store most mornings to grab a cup of coffee on his way to work. On his last visit, the ladies working at the store told him that someone had purchased a winning Hit 5 ticket from their store and he’d better check his two tickets. He went out to his truck where one of the two tickets he’d purchased was stored and it wasn’t the winner. He decided to go home to grab the other ticket. When he returned to the store with the second ticket, the cashiers checked to see if it was the winner — and it was!

“They started screaming and jumping up and down,” Murphy laughed.

When Murphy shared the good news with his manager at work, his boss told him to take the day off and go collect his winnings.

“I told my brother and he simply said, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me!’” Murphy said.

“This was only the second time I played Hit 5,” Murphy said.

When he realized that his friend of more than 15 years who works at Trafton General Store had sold him the winning ticket he decided to go back and tell her the good news.

“It definitely is going to make life a lot easier,” Murphy said.

Murphy works for a construction company and things often get slow during winter months. The winnings will definitely help give him peace of mind. He plans to purchase a home with the winnings.

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