Lottery player settles for different NC ticket after favorite sold out. It paid off
A North Carolina woman won a top lottery price after settling for a different ticket.
Joanne Pacheco bought the winning “7” scratch-off lottery ticket from the Lakeland St. Mini Mart in Durham over the weekend after the one she wanted to buy was sold out, according to the North Carolina Education Lottery.
“They didn’t have my tickets,” she told lottery officials. “So, I said ‘Just give me four of those.’”
Pacheco told lottery officials she scratched the tickets when she got home and couldn’t believe it when she saw she won $200,000.
“I was sitting on my bed, thinking I can’t believe this is real,” she said, according to the lottery.
Pacheco told lottery officials she recently moved to North Carolina from New Hampshire to be closer to her son after “facing some health problems.”
She claimed her prize Wednesday and took home $141,501 after taxes.
“I’m gonna live happily for the rest of my life,” she told lottery officials. “That’s all that matters to me.”
The “7” tickets launched in May with six $200,000 prizes, according to the lottery. After Pacheco’s win, two top prizes are left.
