A present she'll never forget
By Kate Northrop
STANLEY, N.C. — Small gestures may go a long way, but receiving a scratch-off lottery ticket worth $2 million is one that a North Carolina woman will certainly never forget.
Karen Urtecho Sandrez of Charlotte won $2 million from a scratch-off, but she was not the one who bought the winning ticket.
The ticket that Urtecho Sandrez was gifted was from the North Carolina Lottery's $20 "100X The Cash" instant game. A family friend purchased the winning ticket at Lucia Food Mart on Killian Road in Stanley.
"It's kind of surreal," Urtecho Sandrez told the Lottery on Thursday when she claimed her prize at their headquarters in Raleigh.
Neither the winner nor the friend realized that the value of the gift would be so high.
"I could not believe it, honestly," Urtecho Sandrez recalled of seeing the $2 million prize on the ticket. "You read it and you don't believe it."
The recipient of the once-in-a-lifetime gift chose to take the $1.2 million lump sum over an annuity of $100,000 a year for 20 years and took home $849,006 after taxes were withheld.
At the game's launch in December 2020, there were ten top prizes of $2 million available. Following Urtecho Sandrez's win, there are four top prizes remaining, as well as six out of ten $100,000 second prizes and 85 out of 160 $10,000 third prizes left to claim. According to the Lottery, the odds of winning any prize in the "100X The Cash" game are about 1 in 3.03.
Outstanding Karen !!!! Good for you...Congrats on the newly acquired wealth
That is definitely a great gift! Hopefully, they continue to remain friends after this. Money sometimes changes people, especially in a situation like this.
Hopefully, she shared a lil bit. I'll use about 10K to scout for more winning tickets
Christmas in July and not even in a stocking!
Certainly Karen will share some with her friend.
LP was long overdue for a feel good story of this magnitude.
where are my friends? lol congrtz
This is why I wouldn't gift a lottery ticket to someone else; I'm not magnanimous enough to want someone else to win on my dollar and ju-ju. If I were to gift a ticket to someone else, I would include a pre-scratch clause that if a certain amount or over were won, we would be partners in the winnings.
* Always gift yourself first. That way you won't feel bad when you win!--Nikola Tesla.
WOW
Pat, I would like to solve the puzzle,,, friend was an illegal and needed her to cash the scratch-off since she had proper I.D. I see it all the time at the Raleigh headquarters and NCEL is notorious for coming up with all those feel good stories.
This is a very interesting story. It is the type of situation that could test a friendship or solidify a friendship, depending on how it is handled in the coming weeks, months, and years. Congrats to the winner.
Hopefully not. Karen is a paralegal at a law firm and should know better.
Just as I thought, these reports provoke speculation, and how do we know if the facts are substantiated. I still have trouble believing the woman in Florida let that old bag get ahead of her in the lotto line and hit.
That's a good one, laughed my butt off especially the old bag part. Of course I put an 'H' in place of the 'B'.
Lost some good money today. 424 was on a mailbox riding with the pooch this morning and thought...umm, that sounds good. Did I play....heck NO....did it come in for mid-day...heck yeah.
A win is a win! Good for you Karen and be sure to tip your friend very well--that's what I would call "Top Notch Service" in the form of a gift--the person that gave it to you obviously thought you were worthy of a win no matter the amount.
wow! I see posts like this on occasion here. Glad that the majority of LP members are not that greedy or selfish. It is not your dollar once it is gifted.
I wouldn't give a 'scratch off' ticket as a gift (unless it's my wife). I might give a pick 3 as a gift because I would play the same number that I would give as a gift. A 'scratch off' or big prize ticket, no way jose. That's just me.
I disagree. It's not being greedy or selfish. That luck should have been for the one giving the gift. A pick 3 ticket is a good enough gift. A lottery ticket gift where you too can play the same numbers is okay too. You win I win.
Come awwwwwn NG,,,,,gifting yourself first ???
"The value of a man resides in what he gives" --- Albert Einstein
Besides,in the end,it isn't about what you have or achieved. It's about who you have helped and made other folks lives a little better.
* Btw- CD, your 3rd paragraph ties in well with the thread on the Australian woman who won over $100mil & continued to work. Measure up your remarks to what others had to say. Some of us were thrown under the bus for aligning our thinking with your point.
Actually NG, I do not do it all the time...I buy a scratcher for my enjoyment on occasion. Just as some buy cigarettes or alcohol. I like to rent a movie on my television or I take out the family or a friend and buy a meal at a restaurant. So, I should pay for someone's meal/movie rental before I am allowed to purchase mine ? I need to give clothes to someone else before I am allowed to buy my own ?? As the current man in the White House says, " Come awwwn, man". This positive article is about a giving of a gift that turned out to be extra not about what that person chose to gift for themselves. Giving is the extra that people have the time/finances/ability to do so.
As far as measuring up ? I don't have to measure up my words/actions to a single person on this site. NOW, if you want to pay all my bills and pay for my existence on the planet ?? No problem..I will work harder on measuring up to what you & others say. As far as giving, I put my time on active duty in the military and I spent 17+ years as a police officer on the streets,volunteered in the big brother/sisters program(not tooting my horn,just stating facts).The crap I saw and put up with, no other human should have to ever endure. As far as giving to others is concerned I did give for many years, long before I achieved the finances to be able to purchase for others. I welcome anyone on this site to walk a mile in my shoes as far as giving first. If someone gets offended by my replies, oh well, that's on them.
Not greedy and not selfish. Honest and realistic. If one is amongst the very rare to have enough luck to win a $2,000,000 prize, you are positing that such a person would be just as happy- even happier- to have gifted that to someone else and not won it for themself?
On the flip side, if I were ever on the receiving end of such a gift, I would ask the giver what share of the prize they would like to keep for themself and accept that uncontested; again, not greedy and not selfish.
* We seem to be discussing two different things here CD.
* When you asked " gift yourself first?" You were talking about scratchers- l was not. I was thinking about "gifting myself "with lottery tickets because l buy those for myself & if l win, that's my gifting myself, not another person. I even pointed out l do not purchase scratchers, so we both airborne, but on different flights, so to speak.
Anyways..
Congrats to the lucky winner
. Hopefully the winner, will break off some for the giver. If not, than they're cold hearted, and not a true friend. But If they as true friends as the article states, then both parties are good to go. I just wont to know where are all my true friends like this are. 
Harty you two.
In this particular case your logic makes NO sense.
The friend who gave the other friend the lottery scratch-off had no way of knowing it was a 2 million dollar winner before she gifted it, unless she gave it already scratched off. Just because YOU see many illegal people getting friends to cash in lottery winnings does not mean every person is doing it.
If this is the case with the woman and her friend, it still does not mean the woman is an illegal. FYI, in most states when one goes to the lottery headquarters to cash in a winning ticket, their ID name must match the name on their social security card exactly or they will NOT get their money. Do you even realize how many legal American citizens ID name and social security card name do not match? Whether it is, middle name, married name or middle initial. It is not always about someone's legal status. Most people don't realize this until they get to the lottery headquarters. If they have waited until the last minute to cash in the lottery ticket, it will take weeks for the person to have their ID and social security card name change, by then their lottery ticket will have been expired.