"How exciting; it's a great day," exclaimed Gina Pezley of Centertown, leaving the Missouri Lottery offices with a Show Me Cash jackpot prize worth $145,000.
Pezley purchased the winning ticket for the Feb. 1 drawing at Centertown General, a convenience store she owns with her husband, Tom, located at 11816 Lookout Trail in Centertown.
"I buy one of all the games every so often," she explained.
But nothing could have prepared her for what she saw when she scanned her ticket just about an hour before she landed at lottery headquarters.
"I've bought a lot of tickets that I've scanned, but they didn't say this," she said with a laugh. "I went and got my husband and said, "Come here. Come here,' and he said the scanner (Check-A-Ticket machine) doesn't make mistakes!
"I've got all kinds of things I'd like to do with this money," she added. "We want to get gas back at the store, and I have six kids, so there's never enough money."