Los Angeles
A woman in Southern California is ‘accidentally’ $10 million richer thanks to some help pushing a button at a California Lottery Scratchers vending machine.
According to lottery officials, California resident LaQuedra Edwards was at a Los Angeles-area Vons grocery store in November 2021 when she put $40 into the Scratchers machine.
Edwards said when she was deciding which games to play, “some rude person” bumped into her. The impact then pushed her into choosing the wrong selection on the machine, a $30 200X Scratchers ticket.
“He just bumped into me, didn’t say a thing, and just walked out the door,” Edwards said.
Edwards told lottery officials that she wasn’t planning on playing that game and was initially irritated because the ticket took most of her lottery budget.
However, Edwards said she was not upset for long as she started scratching the $30 ticket once back in her car and discovered she’d just won the game’s top prize of $10 million.
“I didn’t really believe it at first, but I got on the freeway and kept looking down at [the ticket], and I almost crashed my car,” Edwards said. “I pulled over, looked at it again, scanned it with my [California Lottery mobile] app, and I kept thinking this can’t be right.”
According to lottery officials, Edwards plans to use the prize money to purchase a home and start a nonprofit organization.
“I’m still in shock. All I remember saying once I found out how much I just won was, ‘I’m rich!” Edwards said.
Lottery officials said the Vons store where Edwards bought the Scratcher received $50,000 for selling the winning ticket.