She spent $5 on a North Carolina lottery ticket — and couldn’t believe her luck
A North Carolina woman spent $5 on a lottery ticket — and scored a prize worth much more.
“We couldn’t believe it when we saw the ticket,” Paola Guerrero-Alonso said in an Aug. 19 news release. “We’re still not sure it’s real.”
But her six-figure win was the real deal, and it put her on the path toward fulfilling a dream of being a real-estate investor.
“We’ve wanted to buy some for a long time,” Guerrero-Alonso, 28, told the N.C. Education Lottery. “Maybe remodel a house and rent it out.”
Guerrero-Alonso won $200,000 after she stopped at a Speedway in Salisbury, roughly 40 miles northeast of Charlotte. While at the store’s South Main Street location, officials said she tried her luck on the Sapphire 7s scratch-off game.
It turns out, her $5 ticket scored the game’s last top prize. Guerrero-Alonso, who works as a translator and lives in Rowan County, kept $142,021 after taxes, according to the N.C. Education Lottery.
It’s not the first time a North Carolina jackpot prize has helped to make a dream become reality.
In July, officials said a barber wanted to start her own shop after winning big.
A month earlier, a prize-winning couple planned to go on a vacation the wife had been dreaming about, McClatchy News reported.
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MOREWhen gambling is more than a game
Gambling is designed to be a source of entertainment.
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.
