Woman discovers big NC lottery win when boyfriend urges her to check ticket again
A woman discovered she’d won a big lottery prize only when her boyfriend urged her to check the $5 ticket again, N.C. lottery officials said Saturday.
Tiffany Griffin bought a ticket in the new crossword-themed Cashword Multiplier scratch-off game because “I’ve always loved doing crossword puzzles,” the 42-year-old said when she claimed her $150,000 top prize at lottery headquarters in Raleigh Friday.
She beat odds of 1 in 3.91 million, according to the Cashword Multiplier page on N.C. Lottery.com.
“The crossword scratch-offs are the only ones I buy,” she said, according to a lottery news release.
Griffin lives in Charlotte. She bought the ticket at BP Food Mart on West Sugar Creek Road in the Queen City, according to the lottery.
She thought she won $500 at first and called her boyfriend to tell him. Griffin said she checked the ticket again when he told her to look at the ticket “real carefully.”
That’s when she spotted new letters she hadn’t scratched yet.
“I have never experienced anything like that before,” Griffin said. “I had to take a second to breathe.”
After taxes, Griffin took home $106,516, officials said.
She plans to pay bills and do some home repairs with part of her win, according to the lottery.
Cashword Multiplier launched in August with six $150,000 prizes. Five remain to be claimed.