For more than two weeks, Elizabeth Pitts of Denver had more than half a million dollars and didn’t even know it.

“I always buy them, but I’m not very good at checking them,” Pitts said.

So on Tuesday, when she finally checked her ticket from the March 25 drawing, she discovered she had a winner. At first she thought she won several hundred dollars. But when she checked Cash 5 results online, she realized she won the $518,545 jackpot.

“I’ve learned my lesson,” Pitts said. “I’ll be checking everything, every time from now on.”

Pitts claimed the jackpot Tuesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After federal and state tax withholdings, she took home $359,093. She plans to use some of the money to pay bills.

Pitts bought the $1 Quick Pick ticket at the QSC Food Mart on South Main Street in Stanley. She beat the odds of 1 in 575,757 to win the jackpot.

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 $28 million in lottery funds has made a difference in Lincoln County, click on the “For Education” section of the lottery’s website.