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Woman finds lottery ticket from losing pile was $300,000 winner

By Ben Hooper
A Michigan woman said she thought her scratch-off lottery ticker was a loser until she tried to enter it in a second chance game and found out it was a $300,000 winner. Photo courtesy of the Michigan Lottery
A Michigan woman said she thought her scratch-off lottery ticker was a loser until she tried to enter it in a second chance game and found out it was a $300,000 winner. Photo courtesy of the Michigan Lottery

Dec. 13 (UPI) -- A Michigan woman said she wouldn't have realized her scratch-off lottery ticket was worth $300,000 if she hadn't tried to enter it in a second chance game.

The 64-year-old Otsego County woman told Michigan Lottery officials she bought the Double Bonus Cashword game from the Marathon gas station in Gaylord and it ended up in her pile of non-winners when she finished scratching it off.

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The woman said she didn't know anything was amiss until she tried to enter her losing tickets for second chance games.

"I sat down to enter some of the tickets from my pile, and this one just wouldn't go in," she said.

"I tried to put it in three times and just knew I must be missing something. I gave the ticket another look, and realized I forgot to scratch the puzzle at the bottom of the ticket. I started scratching that puzzle and that's when I saw I had a bunch of words," she said.

The winner said she didn't know how much she'd won until she scanned it at a gas station.

"That evening, my friend and I were on our way to a work Christmas party, and we stopped at the Marathon so I could scan the ticket to see what I'd won. As soon as the clerk told me it was a $300,000 winner, I started screaming: 'Oh my God!' I got so shaky, I thought I might be having a heart attack," the winner said.

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The woman said her winnings will allow her to cut back on her hours at work.

"I've been on cloud nine since I won! I have been trying to cut my hours back at work so I can spend more time with family and this will help me do that and live more comfortably," the player said.

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