Fellow customer's complaints lead woman to $500,000 lottery prize

Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A Michigan woman said overhearing another store customer's complaints led her to buy the scratch-off lottery ticket that earned her a $500,000 jackpot.

The 65-year-old Genesee County woman told Michigan Lottery officials she was at the Marathon gas station in Mount Morris when she overheard another customer's complaints about a lottery game.

"I was in line at the gas station and heard the person ahead of me complain that they bought a few $500 Fever tickets and didn't win anything," the player said. "When I got to the counter, I asked the clerk to give me the next ticket on the roll."

The woman said she did not waste any time scratching the ticket.

"I scratched the barcode, scanned it, and got a 'cannot process' message. I scratched the rest of the ticket, thinking maybe I won a little bit of money, so I couldn't believe it when I saw I'd won $500,000. I knew what I was seeing but I didn't want to get too excited until I called the Lottery and confirmed," she said.

The winner said her jackpot will allow her to retire and make investments.