WASHINGTON — A California woman's encounter with a rude customer while buying her lottery ticket ended with her winning $10 million.
The California Lottery said Wednesday that LaQuedra Edwards won the top prize from a $30 200x scratcher she bought in November, 2021.
Edwards explained to lottery officials "some rude person" bumped into her while she was depositing about $40 into the machine at a Vons supermarket in Tarzana, just north of Los Angeles.
The bump caused her to accidentally hit the button for a $30 scratcher instead of her usual lower-cost tickets.
"He just bumped into me, didn’t say a thing and just walked out the door,” Edwards said in the release from the lottery agency.
When she got to the car and began scratching the covering off her ticket, Edwards said her annoyance turned to shock. The ticket was a winner, netting her $10 million.
“I didn’t really believe it at first, but I got on the 405 freeway and kept looking down at (the ticket), and I almost crashed my car,” Edwards said. “I pulled over, looked at it again and again, scanned it with my (California Lottery mobile) app, and I just kept thinking this can’t be right.”
The Vons store where she won her ticket got a $50,000 bonus from the CA Lottery for handing out the winning ticket.
As for Edwards, she said she plans to use her winnings to buy a house and start a non-profit.
It's the latest in a string of good luck for California lottery players. A ticket sold in January in Woodland Hills (about a 15-minute drive from Tarzana) won the Mega Millions jackpot worth $426 million.
