LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Sometimes you have to dream big and trust your instincts.
That strategy worked for a Shepherdsville woman, who recently claimed the top prize of $80,000 on the Kentucky Lottery's $5 Flamingo Bingo scratch-off game, according to a news release.
Pamela Howard-Thorton's family and friends have always described her as a lucky person, and she kept telling herself she needed to buy the lottery’s newest bingo game but said it took her a while to actually buy and play.
"I just had this premonition – go get that ticket," Howard-Thorton told officials when she showed up at Kentucky Lottery Headquarters in Louisville to claim her prize. She walked away with a check for $57,600, after taxes.
She said after dreaming she had won a large lottery jackpot, she headed out the the next day get the Flamingo Bingo ticket.
"I went to the store," she said, "and I still didn’t buy the ticket that I was supposed to buy. I bought a different ticket and won $200. So, I went home and kept telling myself, 'Go get that ticket.'"
Howard-Thorton said she returned to the Speedway in Lebanon Junction that same day and cashed in her winning $200 scratch-off ticket. She used part of the winnings to buy four Flamingo Bingo tickets.
"They laid on the counter all day long," Howard-Thorton said. "I had forgotten about them so at about 11:30 that night I decided to play them. The first three were not winners, so I put them in the trash. Then I was like 'where's my fourth ticket?' I looked in the trash and I was like, 'oh, my gosh, I threw it away,'" she said.
After playing the fourth ticket, she wasn’t sure if the ticket was a winner or not. She asked her husband to check, and when he wasn’t sure, he told her to use the Kentucky Lottery Mobile app to scan it.
"I scanned it, of course, I started crying, and I started shouting and screaming," she said. "I immediately called my daughter and my mom. My mom has always said she would give anything if she could just see me hit a big ticket before something happens to her. When I called her the night I won, she was so thankful and happy for me."
Howard-Thorton said she plans to use some of the winnings to buy herself a new car and pay bills. She's also planning to share some of it with her mom.
Speedway will receive $800 for selling the winning ticket.
There is one $80,000 top prize and eight $1,000 second-tier prizes remaining on Flamingo Bingo.
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