A woman from Lincoln, Nebraska, recently scooped a $220,000 Nebraska Lottery jackpot win after a store attendant mistakenly added an extra ticket to her order.
That turned out to be a fortuitous event for Lori Sailors, as that extra Pick 5 ticket ended up holding the five matching numbers for that night’s draw.
Sailors told the Nebraska Lottery she had a policy of never returning mistakenly paid-for extra tickets, after previously winning a smaller amount in the same manner five years ago.
“I don’t let the mistakes go,” she said. “I don’t just let them sit there.”
The Win
Sailors entered a Casey’s Store in the northern suburbs of Lincoln, Nebraska, at the end of June. She purchased her standard order of five Pick 5 lottery tickets for that week’s draw with her own chosen numbers. However, the clerk mistakenly added an extra ticket with three quick picks of random numbers.
Sailors saw this mistake, but decided to pay for and use the extra ticket anyway, just in case. That was a lucky decision, as one of the picks on the extra ticket, 4, 11, 22, 24, and 27, ended up matching all four numbers for the week’s top prize.
Sailors says she adopted this policy of never returning mistakenly printed tickets, as she had previously won a $50,000 prize in the same way in 2019.
The second-time winner says she plans to spend her new winnings on paying off her daughter’s student loan, as well as a holiday with her husband, Monte. The couple then plan on banking the rest in their savings.
Mistaken Luck
Across the U.S., there are frequent stories of accidental lottery winners who hit big on tickets they never intended to purchase.
Recently, in North Carolina, one woman thought she was trying out an online scratch-off game in demo mode, but she made a mistake and bought a $2 ticket. However, her mistake ended up paying out $736,874, as it hit the Bison Bonanza games top jackpot.
That interesting story is nowhere near as fortunate as the one that occurred in 2022 in California.
LaQuedra Edwards of Los Angeles was using a lottery machine to buy her usual $5 scratch-off tickets when a random stranger bumped into her and she accidentally pushed the button for a $30 200x Scratcher ticket. That ended up being a $30 million jackpot winner.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.