Woman wins big after store clerk gave her wrong lottery ticket

‘If the clerk hadn’t made a mistake, I wouldn’t have won’

A woman in South Carolina was handed the wrong lottery ticket – and a more than $300,000 jackpot along with it.

The anonymous woman went to a Darlington, South Carolina Piggly Wiggly, where she purchased a Palmetto Cash 5 ticket, according to the South Carolina Education Lottery.

When she examined her purchase, she realized the lottery attendant had given her the wrong ticket. The attendant at the Piggly Wiggly offered to correct it, but the woman chose to keep the $2 ticket. She typically always plays the same numbers, but decided that day to try something different.

“I got a quick pick [of randomly selected numbers],” she said, according to USA TODAY.

It's a good thing she did; her spur of the moment decision net her a $303,000 jackpot in the September 4 drawing. Her odds of winning were one in 850,668, according to lottery officials.

A woman in South Carolina won more than $300,000 when she was accidentally given the wrong lottery ticket (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

“If the clerk hadn’t made a mistake, I wouldn’t have won,” she said.

The woman said she plans to use her winnings to renovate her home.

Another big winner from early September won $150,000 from a Powerball ticket, and gave away her entire prize.

Carrie Edwards won the September 8 Powerball drawing by matching four of five numbers and the Powerball. Her initial prize was $50,000, and she received an additional $100,000 because she matched the Powerball number.

When she received the money, she donated all of it to a trio of organizations.

Edwards gave her the first gift to the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, which supports research, education and resources for families affected by early-onset dementia, according to Fox 8.

She told the outlet the cause was very personal to her, because her husband died from the condition.

The other two donations were to Shalom Farms, a nonprofit farm and food justice organization, and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, which provides monetary, educational, and emergency assistance to the families of active-duty service members and veterans.