An Ohio woman’s streak of bad luck turned around when she won $100,000 after accidentally buying the wrong lottery ticket — beating nearly 1-in-900,000 odds in a Friday the 13th drawing.
The unidentified Sheffield Village resident was initially furious at herself for mistakenly buying a Mega Millions ticket instead of her usual Powerball at a Lakewood Cap & Cork liquor store last week — but shrugged it off, figuring she wasn’t going to win the jackpot anyway, according to an Ohio Lottery news release.
Her frustration only grew on March 13 — the day of the drawing — when record-breaking winds knocked out her power and internet, leaving her unable to check her numbers.
When she finally looked the following night, she was stunned to find she’d won $100,000.
She told Ohio Lottery officials she barely slept, repeatedly checking to make sure her winning numbers hadn’t changed.
Disaster nearly struck, however, when the lucky winner went into the Ohio Lottery regional office to claim her winnings and was so excited, she forgot to put her car in park and started to exit her vehicle.
Fortunately, the woman realized what happened and quickly fixed her mistake.
She won $10,000 with the winning numbers 6-19-36-40-55+9 and matched four white balls plus the Mega Ball — but her total prize soared to $100,000 thanks to the 10x multiplier.
The lucky woman’s chances of winning were 1-in-893,761, the Ohio Lottery said.
The Sheffield Village resident will walk away with a whopping $73,250 after 26.75% state and federal taxes and plans to give some of her winnings to her grandchildren, pay off her car and save the rest, lottery officials said.
Winning was a “miracle,” the woman told the Ohio Lotter, noting she is on a fixed income and now won’t have to worry about her bills.
The woman said “all the stars were aligned” for her to score the $100,000 jackpot as a result of the mistake she made on what many perceive as an unlucky day, lottery officials said.
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