The saying goes that “one person's trash is another person's treasure”.
But in the case of this Virginia woman, her own trash contained the treasure that would change her life: a $110,000 winning lottery ticket that she herself had unknowingly discarded.
Buckingham County resident Mary Elliot bought her ticket at a Food Lion grocery store in Dillwyn, choosing numbers based
on birthdays that were important to her
.
Among them was that of her son, who died a few years ago.
Elliott told The Washington Post that he hadn't played in more than a decade.
"I don't think people are lucky," he explained, "I think if God has something for you, he'll see to it that you make it."
The 67-year-old woman bought a two-dollar ticket at a Dillwyn, Virginia, grocery store on Feb. 24, but made a mistake: She thought the drawing would be the next day, but it was actually the same night.
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Mary Elliot won $110,000 in the state lottery.Virginia Lottery
Thus, he spent the day waiting to check the winning numbers without finding the result on the lottery website, until he realized that the draw had already taken place.
“When I saw that I had won, I couldn't stop shaking and feeling the thrill of my life!”
the 67-year-old woman said in a statement from the Virginia Lottery.
But when he went to look for the ticket, he realized that he had thrown it in the trash after checking it hours before but comparing the numbers with those of another wrong draw.
She ran to retrieve it, fearing that her husband had already emptied her bucket, and she found it, but with stains and damage that prevented scanning the barcode.
Elliot took the ticket to the West Virginia Lottery Prize Zone in Henrico, where his victory was confirmed.
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The woman achieved something really difficult: There is only one chance in 749,398 of matching all five numbers as she did, according to the Virginia Lottery.
Elliott, a retired healthcare worker, said her victory wasn't luck, it's all part of something much bigger than herself.
She has already collected her prize, but she has not spent it yet, she told the aforementioned newspaper:
"I am waiting for God's plan
. "
With information from
NBC News
.