(CNN) — Persistence pays.
After playing the same set of numbers for 26 years, one North Carolina couple finally hit the jackpot.
Terry Coggeshall of Durham and his wife took home over $366,000 last week after winning the Cash 5 jackpot.
“These are my wife’s numbers that we’ve been playing for 26 years,” Coggeshall is quoted as saying in a statement from NC Education Lottery. “We started playing them in Florida when we lived there.”
The couple came close to winning a few times in the past but never hit it big.
This time, Coggeshall purchased his lucky ticket from a grocery store in Chapel Hill.
When he arrived home, he and his wife watched together as the winning numbers were called.
“I was in the La-Z-Boy as she was standing there watching and she started screaming. She goes, ‘I won, I won!’ And I go, ‘What?!'”
The pair took home $259,425 after taxes.
Coggeshall, a delivery coordinator, plans to use the money toward retirement.
“It takes a lot of stress off. It’ll be a good amount to put away to help with retirement,” he said.
The odds of winning the cash 5 drawing are 1 in 962,598.
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