Woman with bad headache goes for Tylenol, ends up winning big in Virginia lottery

A bad headache is being credited with winning one Virginia woman a six-figure prize in the Virginia Lottery.

Dakota McNeill of Hampton says the pain was so intense, she called in sick for work and headed for the Newport News Food Mart for a bottle of Tylenol, according to a March 24 news release. Newport News is just west of Hampton on the Virginia coast.

While at the store, McNeill spent an extra $5on a 10X the Money lottery ticket, officials said.

The scratch-off game has prizes ranging from $5 to $100,000. However, odds of a top prize are a sobering 1 in 2,366,400.

McNeill didn’t say whether she took the Tylenol, then checked her numbers or vice versa. Either way, all the scratching ended with her matching the numbers necessary to win $100,000, lottery officials said.

“I looked at it,” McNeill said in the release. “I switched my glasses. My knees got wobbly.”

Lottery officials surmised “it may be the best headache Dakota McNeill ever had.”

Details of how she intends to spend her money were not released.

McNeill is the first person to win $100,000 in the game, which launched with a total of three top prizes, officials said. The other two remain unclaimed.

This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Woman with bad headache goes for Tylenol, ends up winning big in Virginia lottery."