An Idalia woman has experienced a serendipitous twist of fate after a Christmas tradition of gifting Instant Scratch-Its tickets turned into a $100,000 celebration.
The $5 Instant Scratch-Its ticket was purchased from The Lucky Charm Fairfield, Shop T15, Fairfield Shopping Centre, 2-30 Lakeside Drive, Idalia.
The left-over ticket, initially intended as a Christmas present, had remained unscratched until a spontaneous decision to play it herself had overcome her.
“I’m still in shock!” the winning woman declared when officials from The Lott called to confirm her windfall.
“I bought the tickets at Christmas. I have lots of children and they have their own children, so we have a big family and I like to buy tickets for the adults instead of presents.
“I bought a few extras this year in case we had visitors.
“The three tickets left over had been sitting there untouched until the other day while I was waiting for my daughter to come pick me up.
“I’m scratching away, and I don’t fully understand them so I’m thinking I must be reading it wrong, and I just put it in my wallet.
“Later on, I showed my daughter. All she could say was ‘B******t!’.
“Then we showed my grandson, and he said the exact same thing! Then he sent it to his wife and we were all double checking and triple checking!
“It was hilarious. I was getting calls all morning.
“All the kids keep joking around saying you gifted us the wrong ticket!
“It really is amazing, and it’s come at a perfect time.
“I can do some work on the house, maybe get some solar panels. I’ve wanted them for a while.”
The Lucky Charm Fairfield team said they were thrilled for their local customer and extended their heartfelt congratulations to them.