Bluffton woman goes in store for cat food walks out a $1 million SC lottery winner
.jpg "South Carolina Education Lottery scatch-off lottery tickets are displayed on the counter at the Exxon Station on Blossom Street Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005, in Columbia, S.C. A Bluffton woman won $1 million at a Publix store after popping in for a BOGO deal on cat food.")
A Bluffton woman stopped at the May River Crossing Publix for BOGO cat food and walked out a millionaire.
According to a press release from the South Carolina Education Lottery, the woman, who had never been to the Publix at SC 170 and May River Road before, paid for her cat food and used the last few minutes before the store closed to buy a few lottery tickets.
She scratched the tickets when she got home, and was floored when she realized one of them was worth $1 million.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she told South Carolina Education Lottery officials. “If someone would have been in line in front of me, I might not have been able to get the tickets.”
The odds of winning $1 million in the SCEL Millionaire Bonus are 1 in 1,500,000, the lottery said. One more $1 million prize remains in the game.
The May River Crossing Publix got a $10,000 commission for selling the claimed ticket.
As for the lucky winner, she plans to keep her identity secret and to stay thrifty, the release said.
“And I’m not telling anyone I won,” she said.