A woman from Kentucky has become $36,000 richer after receiving a scratch-off lottery ticket as a birthday gift from her aunt.
Brianna Vanhoose, hailing from Salyersville, located approximately 98 miles southeast of Lexington, was at Kash Stop #2 in Salyersville with her aunt, who purchased two tickets: one for herself and one for Brianna, as reported by a news release from the Kentucky Lottery.
This year for her birthday, Brianna received the $50 Millionaire Club ticket, which has a potential prize of $50,000.
Although Vanhoose is not a regular lottery player, she decided to give it a shot because of her aunt’s gift, as she mentioned to lottery officials. While at her mom’s house, her aunt discovered she had won $75, which prompted Brianna to check her own ticket.
“I thought, ‘There’s no way I’m going to win,’” Vanhoose recounted in the news release. “But once I scratched it and saw the winning amount, I just took off running.”
She won by matching the number 49 on her ticket, securing the game’s second prize of $50,000, per the Kentucky Lottery.
‘It still seems unbelievable’
The rest of the family members at her home were taken aback by the news, as they shared with lottery officials.
“She just kept shouting,” her aunt reminisced.
On October 15, Vanhoose and her aunt visited the lottery headquarters in Louisville, where she received her check for $36,000 after tax deductions, according to lottery officials.
The store that sold the winning ticket will receive a commission of $500.
“I still can’t fully comprehend it,” Vanhoose stated in the news release. “It just doesn’t feel real.”
