A North Carolina woman got a shock when she realized she won the lottery on her 20th wedding anniversary.
Sadhana Patel of New Bern won $ 373,741 in the jackpot, according to a news release from the North Carolina (NC) Education Lottery. She purchased her ticket for $ 5 on January 16 and claimed the prize on Monday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh.
“I was shocked,” Patel said in a statement. “I called my kids first and then I told my husband. We were all happy and shocked at the same time.”
Since she purchased a $ 5 Fast Play ticket, she gets 50% of the jackpot money, per lottery rules, and took home $ 264,423 after required federal and state tax withholdings.
“I said, ‘I feel like I got something good, so let me scan it,’ ” she recalled. “I realized it said take it to the lottery. Then I realized, ‘I think I hit the jackpot.'”
Patel said she plans to use the prize money to pay off some bills and share it with family.
The odds of winning a Fast Play jackpot are 1 in 240,000, according to the NC Lottery.
