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A group of colleagues in Kentucky recently received an early Christmas present – a $50,000 lottery win.
It reportedly started when Shelia Colter, a second shift supervisor at Med Center Health Environmental Services in Bowling Green, bought Christmas gifts for her co-workers that weren't mailed in time for gift-giving.
“Our business Christmas party took place at the beginning of this year. I had ordered some items online, but they did not arrive before the party,” Colter told the Kentucky Lottery.
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“So I chose scratch cards instead,” she added.
Shelia Colter (left) purchased a series of lottery tickets for her employees, including Winnie Beckman (right), that resulted in a $50,000 prize. (Kentucky Lottery/Fox News)
Colter gave her employees a variety of cheaper tickets as well as approximately $30 tickets that could be shared among the team, the Kentucky Lottery wrote in a recent news release.
The $30 ticket triggered a series of events that led to the purchase of another ticket that yielded a big win.
“They won $50 of the $30 tickets, so them [Colter] Bought a $50 Millionaire Club scratch-off ticket. That ticket won her $100, so she bought two more, and one of them ended up winning the game’s second prize of $50,000,” the press release said.
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The colleagues continued to play their luck and it paid off.
A group of employees working in Bowling Green, Kentucky, scored a big win after their boss surprised the team with an early Christmas gift of Kentucky Lottery scratch-off tickets. From then on, the group played more and more lottery games. (iStock / iStock)
“We kept playing as a group. We’re twenty-one,” Colter said.
“I stopped on the way to work and we kept winning,” she added.
Retailer IGA Express on US 31 W Bypass in Bowling Green will receive a $500 bonus for selling the winning ticket, lottery officials said.
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Colter and another employee, Winnie Beckman, visited the Kentucky Lottery headquarters to collect the prize.
Colter bought two $50 scratch-off tickets for the Millionaire Club and one of them ended up being a winning ticket. (Kentucky Lottery/Fox News)
Beckman was already on her way to Louisville to take her citizenship test – which she passed, the Kentucky Lottery reported.
Colter and Beckman received a check for $35,750 after taxes, split into 21 parts, or about $1,750 per person.
Colter plans to use her portion of her winnings to purchase Christmas gifts that still need to be purchased.
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“That means a lot. This will help a lot of people,” she told the lottery commission.
The profit was split 21 ways, meaning each employee received about $1,750 in earnings. (Kentucky Lottery/Fox News)
Beckman's mother was recently diagnosed with stage four cancer, so she will use her income to care for her mother.
“I will use it for my mother’s medicine,” Beckman said in a statement shared with the Kentucky Lottery.
“This will help a lot. And I’ll never forget that,” Beckman added.
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