Lottery winner kept historic ticket close all weekend. ‘Too nervous to leave it home’
A Mississippi mom won a historic lottery prize — then made sure her lucky ticket wasn’t going anywhere.
“The shocked player said she kept the ticket with her all weekend, too nervous to leave it home,” the Mississippi Lottery wrote in a Jan. 29 news release.
It turns out, the woman’s $1 million prize was the largest ever won in the $20 Jackson game. When the game debuted in November, it was the first scratch-off ticket in the state to offer the chance to become a millionaire, officials said.
The mother won the game’s top prize after she went to a Blue Sky convenience store on Jan. 26 in Tupelo. She bought her regular ticket for the Cash Pop game but spent an extra $20 on a Jackson ticket when she saw someone else in the store buying one.
The woman said she was at work when she learned her decision paid off big time.
“I told the kids I had a surprise to tell them when we got home,” the woman told lottery officials. “One joked I’d won a million dollars. I gave them cookies, instead. They were disappointed; then, I told them I had in fact won one million dollars!”
Now, the prize money may help the family’s goal of getting a new house. But at least one thing will stay the same, since the lottery winner still plans to go to work.
“This is phenomenal,” Jeff Hewitt, president of the Mississippi Lottery, said in the news release. “What a great moment for this player and her family.”
The lottery in its release didn’t identify the winner or say how much money she kept after taxes. She is from Lee County, home to Tupelo and roughly 190 miles northeast of the state capital of Jackson.
Recently, another lottery player celebrated a historic win. In North Carolina, a grandmother’s record-breaking prize made her birthday even better, McClatchy News reported.
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This story was originally published January 30, 2024 at 9:23 AM with the headline "Lottery winner kept historic ticket close all weekend. ‘Too nervous to leave it home’."
