There’s nothing like buying a scratch-off ticket and winning a fortune, but in 46-year-old Oksana Zaharov’s case, the clerk gave her the wrong ticket, which turned out to be totally the right ticket after all. There’s nothing quite like starting a brand new year as a millionaire.

While visiting Manhattan, Zaharov, who hails from Edgewater, NJ, asked the clerk to hand her a $1 New York lottery ticket. However, the man’s attention obviously strayed, as he gave her a Set For Life ticket, which cost her $10.

Woman felt bad about the clerk’s error and kept the ticket anyway

Zaharov told the lottery that she did notice the mistake, but felt bad about asking him to change it and went ahead and paid for the scratch-off ticket. She said for a couple of weeks she left the ticket unscratched and even used it as a bookmark. When she finally decided to scratch the ticket, she couldn’t believe her eyes, as she had won a huge $5 million, which she will receive over the next 20 years and will benefit from around $172,068 every year after that period for the rest of her life.

Woman's lottery win goes viral

As reported by Fox News, her win went viral Tuesday after media outlets heard of the story.

She told them she never wins anything and that she was convinced the ticket was fake. However, when she took it to the lottery office, she found out it was the real deal. Now Zaharov is planning to take the whole family on a vacation in the Bahamas and will also be funding her kids’ college education.

Another woman gets excited over a $11.30 win

As reported by the Huffington Post, one other winner got overly excited when she won a huge $11.30 on HQ Trivia, an app-based game show.

She could be seen celebrating in a video posted on Twitter Tuesday. While the win was pretty small, Lauren May’s reaction to it was huge. She showed such unbridled joy over her win that Scott Rogowsky, the host of HQ Trivia, gave May a Twitter shoutout.

In return, May also reacted on Twitter, saying while she was excited over her win, being crowed HQtie of the Year was even better.

HQ Trivia comes from the Vine creators and is a live, app-based trivia show that was launched in October last year.

Players have a chance to compete every day in an effort to win prizes, which have recently increased to thousands of dollars. May’s win of $11.30 will just sit there for now, regrettably, as you have to win a minimum of $20 to be able to cash out. Still, the feeling of winning was obviously a great thing to this lady, despite the small amount.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED