Free lottery ticket wins N.J. woman $1K a week for life

Jun 27, 2018, 10:08 am (27 comments)

Cash4Life

A New Jersey woman who bought a lottery ticket with a buy-one-get-one free coupon she clipped from a newspaper ended up winning a big Cash4Life Prize. 

Carole Halleran got what turned out to be a second-prize ticket while purchasing coffee for her husband at ShopRite in Wayne, state lottery officials said Monday. 

Halleran's ticket for the April 19 drawing matched five numbers but not the Cash Ball, meaning it's worth $1,000 a week for life or the cash option of $1 million. She chose the cash option.

The Wayne resident told lottery officials had no idea she won until her daughter called with the news that the winning ticket was sold at her local supermarket. Halleran then checked her tickets and discovered the free one had been very lucky. 

Halleran, who previously never won more than $11 playing the lottery, said she will save and invest the money. 

The odds of winning the second-prize with a $2 ticket are 7,282,016 to 1.

No one matched five numbers and the Cash Ball for that drawing — the prize for doing that is $1,000-a-day for life or $7 million if a winner chooses the cash option. That's a 1 in 21,846,048 shot.

Lottery officials don't disclose the ages of winners but Halleran is 38, according to public records.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

LiveInGreenBay's avatarLiveInGreenBay

I'd take the cash option too.  Who knows what the future brings.  Take the money and run.

wander73's avatarwander73

That is awesome.  Good for her.

Raven62's avatarRaven62

Maybe Shoprite is the New Lucky Place to Buy Lottery Tickets!

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Atta girl Carole  !!!!!!  Thumbs Up

Kudos and Congrats

music*'s avatarmusic*

Congratulations to Carole Halleran from Wayne, New Jersey!! Party

Tony Numbers's avatarTony Numbers

Man, what is with these people who buy lottery tickets and don't check them? Maybe I should try that strategy, seems to work!

quicksloth35

Quote: Originally posted by LiveInGreenBay on Jun 27, 2018

I'd take the cash option too.  Who knows what the future brings.  Take the money and run.

I Agree!

 

 

Take the money and run off into the sunset!

 

https://paintings.pinotspalette.com/paradise-sunset-tv.jpg?v=10016201

 

Preferably this tropical one!

LottoHombre

Well, $52.000 a year for life v/s $1m cash. You could retire and made $1m over 20 yrs or $2m if you live for 40 years. A 20ish or 30ish yr. old person already making $35K+ per year would be better off continuing working as long as you love your job - working for someone else.

I'm 64. Cash it is! Apx $650.000 after taxes. A nice vacation/travel or two a year, a new vehicle and a few toys.  Maybe even World Series tickets! Ohhh Yaaah!

Bleudog101

Quote: Originally posted by LottoHombre on Jun 27, 2018

Well, $52.000 a year for life v/s $1m cash. You could retire and made $1m over 20 yrs or $2m if you live for 40 years. A 20ish or 30ish yr. old person already making $35K+ per year would be better off continuing working as long as you love your job - working for someone else.

I'm 64. Cash it is! Apx $650.000 after taxes. A nice vacation/travel or two a year, a new vehicle and a few toys.  Maybe even World Series tickets! Ohhh Yaaah!

It definitely pays better than Lucky 4 Life; secondary prize of $390K on my Season Ticket in Massachusetts--not that I've won that yet! (Cash option I'm talking about).

Bleudog101

Quote: Originally posted by music* on Jun 27, 2018

Congratulations to Carole Halleran from Wayne, New Jersey!! Party

music*...maybe some year CA will add Lucky 4 Life or Cash 4 Life. 

BTW saw on CA lottery FB page that you can now scan tickets from a smart phone...I of course wrote it would be nice if you offered on-line sales as well. 

As tech savvy as California is this should be a no brainer.

Hey, what about sports betting there??? Something I will never do personally.

billybucks

at age 38 she should have taken the 1k a week. you know she isn't going to save and invest that lump sum entirely. saying that to ward off the moochers. by the time she's 48 she will regret this poor decision. if she lives to age 78 she would have collected 2,000,080.00 before taxes instead of the less than 600k she grabbed today. that's 2,080,000.00 oops. some wealth management guys are drooling over trying to get this account into their fold if she does indeed invest it.

LottoHombre

Quote: Originally posted by Bleudog101 on Jun 27, 2018

It definitely pays better than Lucky 4 Life; secondary prize of $390K on my Season Ticket in Massachusetts--not that I've won that yet! (Cash option I'm talking about).

OK, say you win the top prize, $1000/day for life and decide payments. Would you take it as a payment of $7000 every week or as $365,000 every year?

Bleudog101

Quote: Originally posted by LottoHombre on Jun 27, 2018

OK, say you win the top prize, $1000/day for life and decide payments. Would you take it as a payment of $7000 every week or as $365,000 every year?

That's a very good question. If I were a CPA I'd know the right answer.  If I'm not mistaken, they pay just once/year so it should come out the same amount.

beret32

at age 38 she should have taken the 1k a week.

I agree.

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