A Cleveland County man has claimed the sixth largest jackpot to a single Carolina Cash 5 winner in North Carolina history.

Robert Parker had heard someone won big in the Sunday, Nov. 20 drawing. But he didn't realize it was him until the day after Thanksgiving when he checked a few tickets resting on the shelf of his china cabinet. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that his ticket matched all five winning numbers to win $634,650.

“I knew somebody had won,” he said. “But I didn’t know it was me. I knew it was good money.”

Parker, who owns and operates a lawn care service, described modest plans for his after-tax winnings of $431,562.

“First thing is to get a new minivan for the kids,” he said. “I might get a lawnmower with a bagger on it so I won’t have to rake so much. I’m gonna keep working.”

Parker, who lives in the Cleveland County portion of Cherryville, purchased the jackpot winning ticket at Nobles Mini Mart on West Church Street in the Gaston County area of Cherryville. Gaston retailers have earned more than $9.3 million in commissions on lottery ticket sales through June 30 of this year.

As he prepared to drive back to Cherryville, Parker said that he’s glad lottery funds support education. “That was a reason I bought them, too,” he said of lottery tickets. “It doesn’t bother me a bit if it goes to education.”

Since the lottery began through June 30 of this year, Cleveland County education programs received more than $24.3 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries, school construction, need-based college scholarships and at-risk prekindergarten programs.

To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.1 billion for these initiatives statewide.