Mom Who Bought Lottery Ticket on a Whim Wins $1 Million
For one 26-year-old mom, the last-minute decision to buy a lottery ticket was a life-changing one.
Zi Wang was out shopping over the weekend, trying to find a dress to wear to a friend’s wedding, when she made a quick stop at a Covina, Calif., liquor store. That’s where she bought the $10 Big Money Scratchers lottery ticket that paid off in a big way.
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After scratching 12 boxes on her ticket with no luck, she hit the jackpot on lucky number 13 — $1 million. The tough part? Since she picked up the ticket on Saturday, Wang had to wait two days to claim her winnings. “Just thinking about whether or not it was real [was so hard] … just waiting for Monday!” she said, according to a statement the California Lottery provided to Yahoo Parenting.
Wang, who has a young daughter, plans to use her windfall to buy a new house. “My husband and I live with my mom in her house,” she says. “But now I will be buying my own home. My mom will still be living with us.” She also wants to use some of the money to help those in need in her community.
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This wasn’t the first time Wang played the lotto — she’d previously won $400. And while she’s had big dreams of hitting it big, she never expected she’d be a millionaire. “I never thought about that,” she said. “My mom would ask why I didn’t spend my [lottery] money on food or clothes or whatever.”
Today, Wang’s mom is probably thrilled that her daughter didn’t listen.
(Photo: California Lottery)
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