She Lost Her Job, Then Had Stroke of Huge Lottery Luck

They say the universe always balances out, and for one South Carolina woman, that certainly seems to be the case. UPI reports on a "reversal of fortune" for the unnamed woman from the Lowcountry region of the Palmetto State, who recently visited a store called the Old Pantry in Beaufort and forked over $10 for a Gold Rush scratch-off ticket. After doing the physical labor to reveal her prize, she realized she'd hit the jackpot: $300,000.

"I'm still in shock and extremely grateful," she tells officials from the South Carolina Education Lottery. "I've never won anything before." What made her win extra sweet is that she'd lost her job just days earlier. "It's crazy how things worked out," she adds. The woman says her newfound windfall will allow her to take it a little easier and not have to stress as much from bills, as well as buy a new home. The venue that sold her the ticket, meanwhile, will receive $3,000 as the ticket vendor.

It's unclear if the lucky woman would've ditched the job she had, if she'd still had one, after finding out about her win. The State reports on another South Carolinian who recently won the grand prize from a scratch-off ticket, $250,000, and she now says that despite that, she remains employed. "I wish it would have been more, so I could quit my job," she tells the newspaper. (More lottery winner stories.)