Kentucky Woman Snagged Lottery Tickets At A White Elephant Party And Won $175,000

As much as we love the Butter Taper Candle Holder, Golden Girls Shot Glasses, Shower Wine Glass Holder, and Santa Spatula that were circulating at the annual white elephant gift exchange, a Kentucky woman has us beat. She walked away from a competitive white elephant party with $175,000.   

It all started when Lori Janes attended her office holiday party, where she and her coworkers were taking part in the age-old Christmas tradition of a white elephant gift exchange, local NBC affiliate WLWT reported. While some folks play a nice version of the game, Janes and her colleagues opted for the naughty version where once someone unwraps a gift, others have the opportunity to "steal" it, forcing that person to pick another wrapped gift. 

When it was Janes’ turn, she picked a $25 TJ Maxx gift card, which someone quickly swiped. She was disappointed, but ​​chose another gift that held $25 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets. As the game wrapped up, she started scratching off the lottery tickets. She was about to get a big, BIG surprise. According to WLWT, her winning streak started early and she won $50 on the very first ticket. Her next ticket earned her ten more dollars, but when she scratched off the $10 Hit The Jackpot ticket, she won the game’s top prize—a whopping $175,000!

Naturally, Janes’ coworkers were shocked and thrilled at her big win. "Everyone was going insane," Janes said in a statement released by the Kentucky Lottery. 

“I couldn’t believe it.  It was a twenty-five-dollar gift exchange, and I won one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars!” 

Her family also had a hard time believing the good fortune when she called to tell them the good news. “We figured she didn’t look at it right, but then we heard people in the background celebrating, it became real,” her husband told lottery officials. She plans to use her winnings to pay off their car loans as well as her daughter’s student loans. 

Anyone else suddenly looking forward to their next white elephant party?