For Peter Mazzei of Winterville, the birthdates of his family turned out to be lucky ones after they resulted in his splitting a $421,112 Cash 5 jackpot.

The 80-year-old Army veteran has been using the same numbers for years. And on Sunday they ended up as the winning ones.

“I was stunned,” Mazzei said. “This is just great! It’s such an amazing thing to happen.”

Mazzei claimed his half of the jackpot, $210,556, Monday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After federal and state tax withholdings, he took home $145,811. He plans to use the money to pay off his mortgage.

Mazzei bought the ticket at the Handy Mart on N.C. 11 South in Winterville. He beat the odds of 1 in 575,757 to win the jackpot.

The other half of the jackpot went to Nicolas Carranza of Raleigh. He bought the lucky ticket at the Sheetz on Millbrook Green Drive in Raleigh.

Ticket sales from games like Cash 5 made it possible for the lottery to raise more than half a billion dollars for the state last year. For details on how almost $65.7 million in lottery funds has made a difference in Pitt County, click on the “For Education” section of the lottery’s website.