RALEIGH, N.C. — Maria Juana P. Tolentino, a resident of Candor in Montgomery County, North Carolina, thought she was finished with her family's Christmas on Wednesday. Little did she know that a late gift from her brother, a $5 Mega Bucks lottery ticket, would make her $100,000 richer.
Tolentino was sitting in her living room with her family when she realized she'd won the game's top prize.
"At first I thought it was $100," she said. "We were happy to win that. Then I kept scratching and saw it was much, much bigger. I couldn't believe it."
Tolentino plans to use her winnings, worth $68,001 after taxes are withheld, to make some repairs on her home, share with her children and give some money to her brother. The winning ticket was purchased at the Quik Chek on East Main Street in Biscoe.
As of Friday afternoon, seven top prizes of $100,000 and many other prizes remain unclaimed in the game.
Ticket sales for games such as instant scratch-offs have enabled the lottery to raise more than $2.58 billion for education initiatives statewide.
Thanks to Original Bey for the tip.
only 68,000 after taxes? Makes me wanna cry.
I wonder if he would have given it had he known it was $100k winner.......
As I always say........ scan those bar codes before you give a ticket away........
If she figures some hefty deductions, she will get a big return..........
Congratulations to Maria, glad she is sharing with her brother....
They don't have bar codes in nc on scratchers.
You mean its possible to find out if a ticket is a winner before scratching it off? I sure hope not. The store clerks can become overnight millionaires by selling us the losers and keeping the winners to themselves
ahhhh...I'm sure NOT!!
I'm sure she is sharing it with him though. At least I hope she is! If not, I can only imagine the family fued that could possibly lie ahead...perhaps we might see an episode of this in the future on "How the Lottery Changed My Life!" hehehe
I hope he wasn't one of those cheapskates who said they'd sign the back of the ticket before giving it to a relative as a gift.
There are lots of pros and cons about giving scratch-offs as Christmas presents but those against probably never got a fruit cake as a present.I think it was a neat gift that turned into a great gift.
Ohio's scratch-off tickets require the bar codes be scratched clean too before the terminal can tell if they are winners.
i always wrote their name and happy xmas on the back, but after one person told me they had lost the ticket, i thought about registering the ticket when buying it to my player ID incase it gets lost. I may have done it just for that person.
now i just dont bother buying as gifts.
Congrats
Actually they can....they have to scan each ticket to verify you won the amount you've won....as for overnight millionaires they have cameras right on the cash registers and lottery terminals and also the cashier has to scan the ticket when you buy it to take it out of the system ....so they could but they go in and watch the tapes and could tell you were just scanning random tickets to see if you won....I know a few people here when they buy the scratchers they'll have it scanned even before thy scratch it to see if they won...if they do they just scratch off the serial number and cash it in
You make it sound like any clerk could get rich knowing what you think you know.
The box to reveal a winner is under the scratching surface. Sure you can just scratch that small area to scan, but it's noticeable that the ticket has been scratched. No state has a ticket that the clerk can tell if it's a winner without scratching.
And how is that....cause from your response....sounds like you misinterpreted what I said
This makes sense because if the other option were true everybody would be applying for store clerk positions lol there would be a stampede to work at 7eleven
This was unbelievable...the woman was so lucky that her brother brought her a winning ticket! Wow, I just couldn't believe what I read here...