Couple Puzzles Out $250K Lottery Win In Brick

BRICK, NJ — What's six-letter word means "best in a contest?" Winner.

That's the word that applies to a Brick Township couple who won $250,000 playing a New Jersey Lottery scratch-off game recently, according to lottery officials.

Damon Cherico and Shayna Flanders of Brick told officials they are regular players of the state lottery's scratch-offs games, and they have always loved the Crossword-style games.

The couple goes to the same store each week — Jay's Food Mart at 358 Herbertsville Road in Brick — for new tickets, and the store posts signs displaying all the winning tickets it has sold. They were hoping to be added to the wall of winners.

While in the store recently, they noticed Jay's had just opened a pack of $250,000 Crossword tickets and decided to grab the first ticket in the pack.

After returning home, Cherico was scratching off that $250,000 Crossword ticket, as Flanders was scratching off a ticket for a different game.

"Once I uncovered the letter 'T' on the ticket, I knew I was going to win at least something," Cherico said. He continued scratching and uncovered the "P" and "I" and turned to Flanders, saying, "We’re going to be OK."

After uncovering eight words out of the possible 10, the anticipation started to set in. Finally, Cherico uncovered the final letter "L" and realized they had matched all 10 words and won $250,000, lottery officials said.

The couple told lottery officials they were overjoyed, shedding a few tears of happiness while using their phone to scan the ticket to confirm the win. It led to a few sleepless nights as they tried to process the good fortune, they told lottery officials.

The couple said they intend to use some of their prize to get ahead of the bills and replace their
older cars, saving the remainder for their future.

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