Clerk’s error leads Kansas woman to $30,000 lottery win

Feb. 12 (UPI) — A Kansas woman said she is $30,000 richer thanks to a clerk’s error when she was attempting to buy some scratch-off lottery tickets.

Victoria Ethridge, 52, of Salina, told Kansas Lottery officials the clerk at Kwik Shop in Salina misheard her when she asked for a couple of $2 scratch-offs.

“I went into the store and asked for two $2 instant scratch tickets,” Ethridge said. “The store clerk accidentally pulled off two $5 Star Trek tickets that I hadn’t asked for. She apologized and offered to take them back, but I said I’d keep them. ‘They might be lucky,’ I told her.”

Ethridge said her feeling turned out to be correct, as one of the tickets was a $30,000 winner.

“I was alone in the house when I scratched it, and what a shock!” Ethridge said.

She said she scratched the ticket off two days before Christmas, but waited until last week to bring it to lottery headquarters in Topeka.

“I was trying to figure out what to do with it,” she said with a laugh. “I took good care of it, believe me. It was in my purse and I kept the purse beside me at all times. I only let my husband touch the ticket once.”

Ethridge said she plans to use her winnings to buy a car and make some investments.