RALEIGH – Phyllis and Larry Falcone of Stallings plan to use part of the $255,597 jackpot prize they won playing Carolina Cash 5 to pay bills and fund a long-awaited vacation to Italy.

“We’ve been wanting to go to Italy for 15 to 20 years,” said Phyllis, who retired from her job as a senior paralegal on May 3. “This is the best investment we’ve ever made.”

The couple matched all five numbers in the May 22 drawing with their Quick Pick selection.

Larry said he learned of the couple’s win May 23 while checking an early morning email from the North Carolina Education Lottery’s Lucke-Zone. “When I saw those numbers, I thought we might’ve won something because I knew that I had three or four of those numbers,” he said. “So I kept checking.”

The couple bought their lucky ticket from the 7-Eleven at 10806 Providence Road in Charlotte. They beat odds of 1 in 575,757 to win the jackpot.

After taxes were withheld, the couple received a check for $173,806.

Ticket sales for games such as Carolina Cash 5 have enabled the lottery to raise more than $2.8 billion for education initiatives statewide. Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Union County education programs received more than $55.3 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, and need-based college scholarships and financial aid.