Woman throws away lottery ticket, recovers it, and wins 1.5 million pesos: “I started crying.”

Pamela Howard-Thorton, who lives in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, USA, said it all started with a dream in which she “won a big prize.” When she woke up, she decided to go to a nearby store to buy a Flamingo Bingo ticket, but ended up buying a different one that won her a $200 prize.

When she got home, the woman had a feeling she needed to go back to the store. “I kept telling myself, ‘Go get that ticket,’” Howard-Thorton told Kentucky Lottery officials. She used her previous winnings to buy four tickets , this time for the Flamingo Bingo game, which has a top prize of $80,000 (equivalent to 1.5 million Mexican pesos).

The tickets sat on his counter until around midnight, when he decided to check them. “The first three didn't win, so I threw them away,” he said. It was then that he realized he had lost the fourth ticket , which had also been thrown away.

Fortunately, he managed to retrieve it and, despite the uncertainty, used the official Kentucky Lottery app to scan it . The surprise was huge: the ticket had won $80,000 (1.5 million pesos) .

"I started crying and screaming. I immediately called my daughter and my mother," the lucky winner recounted.

After deducting taxes, Pamela won $57,600 (1.08 million pesos). She's determined to use this money to buy a vehicle, pay off her debts, and provide financial support to her mother, with whom she celebrated the surprise victory.

In addition, the store where the winning ticket was sold received an $800 incentive from the state lottery.