A new lottery winner from the Monee area plans to buy a house after snagging a $1 million prize on an Illinois Lottery scratch-off game, according to the lottery.
The winner, who has requested to remain anonymous, won recently after her husband picked up tickets at Monee Tobacco, 5701 W. Monee Manhattan Road, in Monee, according to a news release from the lottery.
The $25 scratch-off ticket showed a top prize of $1 million, and the lottery said the winner plans to use the prize money to buy a house.
“I’ve always dreamed of buying a house. It would be fabulous to finally say ‘We own this home.’ After taking care of a few other necessary purchases, choosing the perfect house for our family will be the top priority,” the winner said, according to the lottery news release.
The tickets were purchased in the last couple of weeks, and the winner came forward soon after winning the prize, according to Olivia Bellon, a lottery spokeswoman.
“My husband was on his way home from work and was so tired that day he didn’t want to stop at the store,” the winner said in the news release. “He knows I like crosswords and puzzles in general, so he bought me a $25 Diamond Crossword scratch-off lottery ticket.”
“The only people we’ve told so far are our kids,” explained the winner. “Each of us had the same shocked reaction and didn’t believe we’d really won a million dollars.”
The husband stopped at the store to buy other items and picked up the scratch-off tickets, Bellon said. She said the winner and her husband buy each other lottery tickets from time to time.
The store will receive a selling bonus of 1% of the prize or $10,000, according to the lottery.
