'Complete shock': Woman unknowingly drives for 2 months with $653K lottery ticket beside her
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) – Since September, Tina Edwards drove around Greensboro, North Carolina not knowing that a lottery ticket worth more than $500,000 was sitting beside her the entire time, according to an NC Education Lottery news release.
“I didn’t know I won,” Edwards said. “I was riding around with it for two months with no idea I had a winning ticket.”
Edwards, a customer service manager, stopped at the Best Way convenience store in September and bought a few lottery tickets while on the way to dinner with a co-worker.
On Tuesday, Edwards and the same co-worker went to a different gas station and decided to check the old tickets.
“We were in the store, and she said, ’Oh! You won something,’” Edwards said. The amount left her stunned. “I’ve been in complete shock for the last two days," she added.
Edwards matched all five white balls in the Sept. 28 drawing to win the jackpot.
She arrived at lottery headquarters Thursday to collect her prize. After required state and federal tax withholdings, she took home $464,121.
Edwards said she can now cross two things off her bucket list: paying off her house and a family trip to Dubai.