A Louisville, Kentucky, woman won $175,000 from scratch-off a lottery ticket at a company holiday party Tuesday.
Lori Janes, an office manager and treatment coordinator at Harmon Dental Center, was participating in a ‘white elephant gift exchange’ game with her coworkers when someone “stole” her $25 TJ Maxx card she had received, according to Kentucky Lottery.
White elephant gift exchange, also known as Yankee swap or Dirty Santa, is a popular Christmas party game where a participant chooses a gift, but subsequent participants can steal that gift or choose another, with the process continuing for each individual who brings a gift.
Janes decided to steal another gift, which turned out to be $25 worth of scratch-off tickets. Since the tickets had been stolen once before, the gift was now Janes to keep, per the game’s rules.
Her coworkers then immediately implored her to scratch the tickets, as no one else could steal them.
Janes scratched the first spot off the ticket and won $50, and then on the second scratch, she won $10. As she scratched each spot, she continued winning and eventually won all spots, meaning she won the game’s top prize of $175,000.
“Everyone was going insane. People were getting their calculators out and double checking,” Janes told lottery officials. “A couple of people even scanned the ticket on the lottery’s app, just to make sure.”
“I couldn’t believe it. It was a twenty-five-dollar gift exchange, and I won one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars!” she added.
Janes’ husband and children had a hard time believing her at first but realized it was real when they heard her coworkers celebrating in the background of the phone call, according to her husband, per lottery officials.
Hours after winning, Janes and her family showed up at the lottery headquarters to receive her prize, which turned out to be a $124,250 check after taxes. She says she plans to pay off her daughter’s student loan debt and their vehicles.
“This is so crazy. I’m truly blessed,” Janes added.
According to Kentucky Lottery, Sunrise Market in Fisherville will also receive a $1,750 bonus as a reward for selling the winning ticket.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
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