After attending a church service, a Missouri Lottery player had planned to do some laundry, but she decided against it after seeing how many people were at the laundromat. Instead, she stopped at Schnucks, 8037 W. Florissant Ave. in Jennings, to do some shopping. That’s when a “Heaps of $500s” Scratchers ticket caught her eye.
As she later scratched it off at home, her son pointed something out to her.
“He goes, ‘I think you won $20,000,’” she said. “And I told him that I thought he had gotten it wrong.”
In an ironic twist, it turns out she was right – though not in the way she originally thought. The ticket actually contained the game’s first top prize of $100,000.
“I said, ‘Oh, my God! Thank you, Lord!” she said.
The winner plans to use some of the money to fix up her house, as well as save some for Christmas.
“Heaps of $500s” players have won more than $3.5 million in prizes since the $5 game was released. Over $13.6 million remain in unclaimed prizes, including five more top prizes of $100,000.
In FY24, players in St. Louis County won more than $200.8 million in Missouri Lottery prizes, retailers received more than $19.4 million in commissions and bonuses, and more than $161.2 million in Lottery proceeds went to education programs in the county.
