Woman sees Powerball winner on news — then checks forgotten tickets and wins big
A medical receptionist decided to check a stack of forgotten lottery tickets after seeing the news that someone had won the $1.33 billion Powerball prize in Oregon.
She then learned she won $1 million from a Raffle ticket.
Leslie Carr, 52, kept her lottery tickets “tucked away” in Tupperware, the Oregon Lottery said in an April 23 news release.
“If it weren’t for the billion dollar Powerball winner making news, I would have forgot,” Carr told lottery officials. “We don’t check our tickets.”
A lottery player in Portland hit the $1.33 billion Powerball jackpot during the April 6 drawing, McClatchy News reported.
Carr took her pile of tickets to a Fred Meyer store in Happy Valley and started scanning them, lottery officials said.
When she got to her last ticket, a message flashed on the screen directing her to an Oregon Lottery office.
She was confused by the message, so she asked a worker who told her she won a prize over $1,000.
“That’s when I started getting butterflies,” Carr told the lottery office.
The lottery office confirmed Carr won the $1 million prize from the March 15 drawing.
Now she has plans to use the money to pay off her mortgage, which is “a dream come true.” She also wants to buy a new truck and vacation in Hawaii.
Happy Valley is about a 15-mile drive southeast from Portland.
This story was originally published April 23, 2024 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Woman sees Powerball winner on news — then checks forgotten tickets and wins big."
