RALEIGH – Glen Locklear said that winning his $173,578 share of a Carolina Cash 5 jackpot means he can take his fiancé on a cruise to the Bahamas. But the Fayetteville retiree almost missed the boat.

“I was fixing to throw the ticket away,” Locklear said.

Although the ticket was lucky in Friday’s drawing, he had left it on his nightstand before leaving town for the weekend. Upon returning Sunday morning, he called the lottery’s customer service line to hear the winning numbers and wrote them down.

“First I got one, then two, and I said ‘Hey I got three,’” he recalled. “And it kept going – I got five!”

Locklear, a North Carolina native, shared the good news with his daughter during their Sunday tradition of watching racing together.

“I hit the big one, but I’m not sure how much,” he told her. They looked up the drawing results on the lottery’s website and discovered he actually had one of three tickets to split a $520,734 jackpot three ways.

“I was just shocked,” he said. “I started shaking. I said ‘This is unreal.’”

Locklear, who let the computer Quick Pick the lucky numbers for him, said he has played Cash 5 every day since the game began in October 2006. He retired in 2005 from a 35-year career as a tool and die maker. With his $120,116 after-tax winnings Locklear said that, besides the cruise, he and his fiancé may take a trip to Las Vegas.

Locklear bought his ticket at the Kangaroo Express on Hope Mills Road in Fayetteville. One of the other big winners in the drawing, Ashby Jordan of Greenville, also claimed his $173,578 share on Monday. The owner of the third ticket, sold at the Quik Chek on Sunset Avenue in Asheboro, has yet to come forward.

Ticket sales have made it possible for the lottery to raise more than $3.4 billion for the state. Net proceeds will be used this year to help pay salaries of teachers and teacher assistants, for pre-kindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, school construction and repair, and need-based college scholarships and financial aid.

For details on how more than $115.8 million in lottery funds have made a difference in Cumberland County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” tab on the lottery’s website.