Time to pick a new favorite
By Kate Northrop
DURHAM, S.C. — A North Carolina lottery player had to choose the next best lottery ticket when her favorite game was sold out at the store — and she ended up winning a $200,000 prize.
Joanne Pacheco of Durham had to go with another option when her preferred ticket wasn't available at the lottery retailer. That inconvenience couldn't have been more lucrative — she ended up winning a $200,000 top prize because of it.
Over the weekend, the lucky player visited the Lakeland St. Mini Mart on Lakeland Street in Durham and looked for her usual game.
"They didn't have my tickets," Pacheco told the North Carolina Lottery. "So, I said, 'Just give me four of those.'"
Pacheco ended up going with the $5 "7" scratch-off game, which was launched in May and features six different ticket design variations.
She headed home with her scratch-off tickets and got to work.
"I was sitting on my bed, thinking I can't believe this is real," she said when she recalled the moment she revealed a $200,000 top prize.
The winner visited Lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Wednesday to claim her prize and took home a grand total of $141,501 after federal and state taxes.
According to the Lottery, Pacheco had faced health problems in the past and decided to move to North Carolina from New Hampshire to be closer to her son.
"I'm gonna live happily for the rest of my life," Pacheco proclaimed. "That's all that matters to me."
Now that Pacheco claimed her prize, two more top prizes of $200,000 remain in the "7" game out of six originally available at its launch. There are also seven second prizes of $10,000 out of 12 remaining and 12 third prizes of $5,000 out of 18 left.
The feeling of winning a nice prize like that because your favorite was sold out means it was meant to be!
With these well written articles one can visualize everything the player sees and get a taste of their emotions too.
as luck would have it, Right place, Right time.
Congrats to the lucky winner.
I cannot help but wonder which ticket in her sequence of 4 was the winner.? Was it the first one, the last one or one of the 2 in between. Whenever I buy 4 tickets I am always tempted to buy 5. Whenever I buy 2, I am tempted to buy 3. She bought 4. If by chance the 4th ticket was the winner that is outstanding. A lot of the $5 ticket odds are 1 in 4.......she played the odds and came up with a pot of cash.
It really does boil down to:
Right place, right time. 1 minute before or 1 minute after, it would probably be a different story.
Right place, right time.
Right place, wrong time.
This pretty much says everything about winning the lottery and life itself. Congrats to her.
Yes, lucky and smart lady. When the Scratchers I want to buy are sold out, I choose a different game, hope this happens to all of us one day.
LemonDrop...welcome to Lottery Post. Looking forward to more thoughtful/smart comments such as yours now.
We'll be in San Diego in a few months...always wanted to go there....sorry Lake Tahoe, CA/NV!