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A woman in North Carolina had to "calm" herself down after landing a massive prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket, joking that she thought she would have a "heart attack" when seeing just how much she won.
Donna Smith, of Huntersville, picked up a $10 Triple 776 ticket from the Run-In on Gilead Road on Sunday (June 16), something that isn't too out of the ordinary for her as she has enjoyed buying scratch-off lottery tickets for years, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery.
"That's how I like to entertain myself," she said, adding that she just had a feeling that she needed to purchase this specific ticket. "That was just what my mind told me to buy."
It was a good thing, too, that she followed that feeling as she quickly discovered she won one of the game's top prizes of $700,000.
"I thought I was going to have a heart attack," she joked. "I had to calm myself down."
Smith claimed her prize at lottery headquarters on Monday (June 17), taking home an impressive total of $500,503 after all required state and federal tax withholdings and telling lottery officials that she was "just happy to be here" to collect her winnings. She also revealed her plans for the prize, which include paying off her house and car as well as donating to her church and helping out her family."