Woman inspired by reality TV show buys lottery ticket — and wins big in Washington
A woman watched an HGTV show and got inspired to buy lottery tickets in Washington.
The $250,000 prize then stunned her.
Shannon Fernandez got the idea to buy $10 scratch-off tickets after watching 'My Lottery Dream Home,' Washington's Lottery said in a March 7 news release.
David Bromstad hosts the show and helps recent lottery winners buy a new home.
'The show just happens to profile a lot of people who win playing $10 Scratch games, so I figured that should be the type of ticket I buy,' Fernandez told lottery officials.
She then went to a Walmart in Spokane and bought two 'sparkly' $10 Diamond Crossword tickets.
Fernandez scratched the tickets when she got home. If a player matches 12 words, they win the top prize of $250,000.
She initially thought she matched 11 words for a $5,000 prize.
'I was so excited that I called my husband, and we planned to celebrate later that night with a nice dinner,' she said.
A Safeway worker scanned her ticket and told her he was 'flabbergasted,' lottery officials said.
He gave her a prize confirmation slip and told her to go to Washington's Lottery Department of Imagination store at the Northtown Mall to claim her prize.
At the time, she still thought she had won $5,000.
But that changed when she walked into the lottery store.
'I looked at the slip and nearly fainted when I saw that it said $250,000 on it. I guess that 12th word was somewhere on the ticket after all!' Fernandez told the lottery office.
Fernandez called her husband to tell him the new prize amount, and lottery officials said he was also 'flabbergasted.'
The couple now has the money to buy their 'dream home,' lottery officials said.
Many people can gamble or play games of chance without harm. However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families.
If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.
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