Grandkid Wins $150,000 Lottery Prize Thanks to Grandma’s Tradition: ‘She Was in Tears’

A North Carolina woman is mapping out plans after an unexpected holiday windfall turned a family tradition into a life-changing moment.

Gracie Burgess of Apex was celebrating Christmas with more than 20 relatives when her grandmother handed her a scratch-off lottery ticket — part of a long-standing custom in which she gives each family member a $5 ticket.

When Burgess realized she had hit the top prize of $150,000, the festive gathering quickly turned emotional.

“Everything got a little chaotic,” Burgess said, recalling the moment. She added that her grandmother was overcome with emotion, saying, “She was in tears. She loved it.”

The winning ticket was from the Peppermint Payout game and was purchased at Han-Dee Hugo’s on Jenks Road in Apex.

After required state and federal tax withholdings, Burgess received $107,626 at the NC Education Lottery headquarters in Raleigh. She told lottery officials that she plans to use part of the money to fix her car and save the rest.

Her win came just two months after the Peppermint Payout game launched, offering three top prizes of $150,000. As of Jan. 2, one top prize was still unclaimed. The odds of winning the game’s top prize are 1 in 1,353,300, according to lottery officials.

Elsewhere, a Michigan man also recently experienced a dramatic lottery moment after playing the Super Raffle game. The 68-year-old said his wife “stopped breathing for a minute” when she learned how much he had won.

“I really liked the odds of the Super Raffle game, so I bought a ticket here and there,” he told lottery officials. “I checked my raffle number on MichiganLottery.com the day of the drawing and couldn’t contain myself when I found out I’d won the $6 million top prize.”

He chose a lump-sum payout of $4.1 million instead of annual payments for the full amount, lottery officials said.