In a stunning reversal of luck, a Virginia woman realized she won a $110,000 lottery jackpot only after the winning ticket had been thrown away.
State lottery officials say Mary Elliot panicked when she realized she'd matched all five winning numbers in the Feb. 24th Cash 5 with EZ Match drawing because she couldn't find her $2 ticket.
"When I saw I'd won, I couldn't stop shaking to save my life," Elliot said in a statement.
The Buckingham County woman immediately went digging through the trash and found the ticket in one piece. But then there was a new problem: The ticket had coffee stains on it, and the barcode wouldn't scan when she tried to confirm her win.
After letting the ticket dry out, Elliot took it a state lottery office where officials confirmed her win and awarded her the $110,000 prize.
Elliot bought her winning ticket at the Food Lion in Dillwyn, just over an hour west of Richmond. The winning numbers were 6-13-18-21-25.
She selected her numbers using important birthdays, including that of her son who died a few years ago, The Washington Post reported.
"I just don't think people are just lucky," Elliot told The Post. "I think that if God's got something for you, he's going to see that you get it."
Elliot didn't reveal any plans for how she's going to spend the windfall.
Virginia's Cash 5 with EZ Match game features a rolling jackpot, starting at a minimum of $100,000. If nobody matches all five winning numbers, the jackpot increases for the next drawing. The odds of matching all five numbers to win the jackpot are 1 in 749,398.
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