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A Woman Bought the Wrong Lottery Ticket and Won $5 Million
This woman was probably TOO polite, but it paid off . . .
46-year-old Oksana Zaharov lives in New Jersey, and was shopping in Manhattan last week when she bought a lottery ticket.
She wanted a $1 scratcher, but the clerk rang her up for a $10 ticket instead. It was one of those "Set for Life" things where you can win $5,000 a week for 20 years.
She says she didn't really want a $10 ticket, but felt bad about making the cashier re-ring it. So she decided to just pay the ten bucks and leave.
She ended up using it as a bookmark for a couple weeks before she finally scratched it off. And when she did, she hit the JACKPOT . . . $5,000 a week for 20 years, which is about $5 million.
She says she never wins anything, and thought someone pranked her at first. But the ticket was legit. She'll get one check each year for about 260 grand. After taxes, that's roughly $172,000.
She's planning a trip to the Caribbean to celebrate, and says she's excited her two kids can go to college now without worrying about student loans.