Lottery Lightning Strikes Twice at Little Silver Pharmacy

"Unbelievable," is how owner Matthew Parisi described the news that his store had sold yet another big lottery ticket. "We're a lucky store."

Parisi said he heard from a customer on Thursday night that a Jersey Cash 5 ticket worth over $73,000 had been sold at the store and confirmed on Friday with his lottery representative.

According to a release from New Jersey Lottery, two winning Jersey Cash 5 tickets were sold on July 4 and the winners would split the top prize of $146,228. The other ticket was sold in Essex County and the winning numbers were: 01, 10, 15, 17 and 22.

The pharmacy worth $41.5 million that had the whole town speculating over who won, until a

Something similar just happened in Holmdel too. On June 26, Jay Patel's 7-Eleven at Kohl's Plaza sold a $21.5 million Pick-6 ticket -- just five days after a customer at his 7-Eleven on Leonardville Road in Belford purchased a winning Jersey Cash 5 ticket  in a $1,081,540 drawing. There were five winning tickets sold throughout the state, so his customer won $216,308.

Aside from the two most recent winning tickets, Little Silver Family Pharmacy sold a Super Crossword ticket worth $7,500 last summer and a $250,000 Mega Millions ticket in December 2010.

Parisi said the store was only open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the 4th of July and speculated that a regular customer might have purchased the winning ticket. "Or maybe it was somebody headed to the beach," he added.

The pharmacy also scores when it sells a winning ticket. After the sale of the big $41 million ticket, the owners received $10,000, which Parisi said they used to pay for some donations to local organizations' fundraisers, and put the rest back into the business. The July 4 ticket will be worth about $750.

But on Friday afternoon when Patch stopped by the pharmacy to get all the details, Parisi was just excited that they sold another winning ticket.

"I feel like I should buy a ticket," he joked. "I wish I played."