Woman Wins $175,000 Lottery at Annual Christmas Party Gifting Game in Her Office | “I’m Truly Blessed”

A Kentucky woman recently participated in a white elephant gift exchange at her workplace and came away with Christmas cheer as well as a massive amount of cash. At the annual Christmas party gifting game, Lori Janes, an office manager and treatment coordinator at Harmon Dental Center in Louisville, had a $25 T.J. Maxx gift card "stolen" by someone. As a result, Janes chose $25 worth of scratch-off tickets in accordance with the swap's conditions, as reported by the Kentucky Lottery. "Once it got to me, it was done and mine to keep," Janes told the lottery commission. "That's when everyone was telling me to scratch them off."

After winning $50 on her initial ticket, the mother of two went on to score all 15 spots on her $10 "Hit The Jackpot" ticket, taking home the game's top prize of $175,000. "Everyone was going insane," she said. "People were getting their calculators out and double-checking. A couple of people even scanned the ticket on the lottery's app, just to make sure."

The woman's spouse and kids also found it difficult to accept the information. Janes' husband told lottery authorities, "We figured she didn't look at it right, but then we heard people in the background celebrating, it became real."

After taxes, the windfall, which amounts to $124,250, will now be used to pay off her daughter's college and car loans, per People. "This is so crazy, I'm truly blessed," she said. "I couldn't believe it. It was a $25 gift exchange, and I won $175,000!"

A Dry Ridge, Kentucky woman, who wished to stay anonymous, also recently claimed the first $1,000,000 win on a new $50 500X Scratch-off ticket, the Kentucky Lottery reported. She bought the 500X ticket earlier this month at Crittenden Fastlane in Crittenden from a vending machine. “After I won thirty dollars on a Jackpot Fortune ticket, I went back into the store to cash in my ticket. That’s when I noticed there was a new fifty-dollar ticket. So, I took my winnings and bought one of them (500X ticket),” she said.

She found a "500X" multiplier symbol with a prize of less than $1,500 when she scratched off the 500X ticket. A "100X" multiplier symbol with a $2,500 prize was placed next to the "500X" symbol. Her symbols added up to the game's top prize of $1 million. “Is that one thousand dollars? No wait, that’s one million,” she said.

“I was in shock! I couldn’t sleep,” she told lottery officials.

References:

https://www.kylottery.com/apps/about_us/news.html

https://people.com/human-interest/kentucky-woman-wins-lottery-jackpot-white-elephant-gift-exchange-work-holiday-party/

Cover Image Source: Kentucky Lottery