RALEIGH – Bobby Ray Carraway Jr., a pressman from Clayton and Viktor Gleb, a truck driver from Monroe, are North Carolina’s newest Carolina Cash 5 jackpot winners. They split a $330,688 jackpot after each had a ticket that matched all five numbers in Friday’s drawing to win $165,344 apiece. Both winners showed up at lottery headquarters in Raleigh Monday to collect their prize money and tell the stories of their wins.

Around 7 a.m. Friday, Carraway was on his way to work at The News & Observer when he made a routine stop at the Wilco on N.C. 70 West in Garner to get his Cash 5 ticket. The next morning, Carraway checked the winning numbers on a coworker’s smart phone, and realized immediately he had hit the jackpot.

“I know my numbers,” he said. They’re the only numbers I play. They’re my family’s birthdays.”

Carraway said it was “intense” waiting to find out how many tickets besides his matched all five numbers in the drawing. After state and federal taxes were withheld, Caraway’s share of the jackpot was worth $112,434. His immediate plans included building or buying a house and paying off some bills. Carraway, a North Carolina native who has worked for 18 years at the newspaper, said he might also take a vacation.

“It’s a blessing for my family,” he added. “I have a seven-year-old son. He could really benefit from this. College, whatever he needs.”

Gleb said he plans to use his share of the jackpot to buy land and maybe pay for a new home. He said he just started playing Carolina Cash 5 in January after researching the game on the lottery’s website and deciding he liked the odds of winning the jackpot. Gleb bought his winning ticket at the BP on N.C. 74 West in Monroe.

“I knew I was supposed to win because I had a feeling,” he said.

Gleb, who moved to the United States 13 years ago from Ukraine, also received $112,434 in after-tax winnings.

By law, lottery funds raised for education pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, need-based college scholarships, and prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds. To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.2 billion for these initiatives statewide.