A Kentucky woman took home the best gift at her office gift exchange.
Lori Janes of Louisville won $175,000 after receiving a lottery ticket at her office Christmas party, according to a Kentucky Lottery news release.
Janes, a manager and treatment coordinator at Harmon Dental Center, participated in a “white elephant” gift exchange (meaning an exchange of unusual or useless gifts) at her office on December 13.
All gifts had to be worth $25 or less.
Another participant “stole” a $25 TJ Maxx gift card that Janes had received. The office manager, a regular TJ Maxx buyer, was disappointed, according to the statement.
But according to the rules of the gift exchange, she had to choose another gift, and she opted for the $25 in scratch tickets from a co-worker.
“Once I received it, it was done and it was mine,” Janes said in the statement. “That’s when everyone told me to scratch them.”
With the first ticket, Janes won $50. But it was the second ticket that gave her the jackpot: $175,000.
According to the statement, the office was stunned by his victory.
“Everybody went crazy. People were getting out their calculators and double checking,” Janes said in the statement. “A couple of people even scanned the ticket in the lottery app, just to make sure.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” he continued. “It was a $25 gift exchange and I won $175,000!”
Her husband and children were also incredulous at first.
“We thought she hadn’t gotten a good look at it, but then we heard people in the background celebrating, it became real,” Janes’ husband told lottery officials, according to the statement.
That same day, Janes collected her unexpected Christmas prize of $124,250 after taxes.
“This is crazy,” he said, according to the statement. “I’m really blessed.”
Janes plans to use the proceeds to pay off her daughter’s student loans, as well as her cars.
And Janes isn’t the only winner: The store where the tickets were sold will also receive a $1,750 bonus.
The odds of winning the $175,000 prize in the “Hit the Jackpot” game are just 1 in 1.08 million, according to the Kentucky Lottery.
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