Portsmouth, Virginia, woman Kaitlin Gilbert discovered a $300,000 prize while scratching tickets with her fiancé and hopes to buy a house and vehicle.
A Portsmouth, Virginia, woman was sitting on the floor with her fiancé, scratching tickets they had just bought in Chesapeake, when she realised one of them was worth $300,000.
Kaitlin Gilbert had some extra money after doing her taxes and sent her fiancé to buy scratchers from the Wawa at 3400 South Military Highway in Chesapeake. When he returned home, the couple sat down together and began scratching the tickets while talking.
It was then that Gilbert discovered that her Crossword Spectacular ticket was worth the game’s $300,000 top prize.
“I about had a heart attack,” Gilbert told Virginia Lottery officials when she claimed her prize. “I couldn’t breathe.”
Her fiancé asked what was happening, and Gilbert dropped the ticket. She described the discovery as “unbelievable” and said she had always told people that one day she was going to win big.
Gilbert, who works in customer service, now hopes to use the money to buy a house and a vehicle.
The Crossword Spectacular game offers prizes ranging from $10 to its $300,000 top prize. Gilbert’s was the first $300,000 top prize claimed in the game, with two more top prizes remaining unclaimed at the time of her claim.
The Virginia Lottery states that the odds of winning the game’s top prize are 1 in 979,200, while the overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 3.69.
