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A Kentucky woman is $175,000 richer after a white elephant gift exchange. WLKY reported that a woman in Louisville swiped a gift worth $25 and ended up a lottery winner.
According to the Kentucky Lottery, Lori Janes was at her company holiday party where they did a holiday gift exchange game known as white elephant. The game allows the players to "steal" gifts from one another after they've unwrapped them and revealed what it is.
Janes initially picked a $25 TJ Maxx gift card, but it was stolen. She then chose another gift that had $25 worth of scratch off lottery tickets.
Janes said, "Once it got to me, it was done and mine to keep. That’s when everyone was telling me to scratch them off."
Janes won $50 on the first ticket. She then won the $175,000 top prize on the $10 Hit The Jackpot tickets. She said, "Everyone was going insane. People were getting their calculators out and double-checking. A couple of people even scanned the ticket on the lottery’s app, just to make sure."
Janes called her family to share the good news, but they didn't believe her at first.
Janes, her husband, and her two children went to the lottery headquarters just two hours later and picked up a check for $124,250 after taxes.
Janes said, "This is so crazy. I'm truly blessed."