Winning $1M Lottery Ticket Bought By Fredericksburg Woman

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — When Fredericksburg resident Pauline Johnson plays the Virginia Lottery, and she says she does so regularly, it's almost always by playing something like Cash4Life. "But once in a while," she told lottery officials, "I'll buy a scratcher ticket."

So it went recently in the 7-Eleven at 552 White Oak Road. She bought a couple of $52 Million Cash Spectacular tickets, one of which happened to be worth a cool $1 million. Her initial reaction: "Oh my gosh. Real people really do win this!"

Given the choice between taking the full $1 million over 30 years or a one-time cash option of $681,000 before taxes, she opted for the latter. Her odds of winning were 1 in 1,224,000. She's the fifth top winner, meaning one ticket out there somewhere remains unclaimed. The 7-Eleven got a $10,000 for selling the winning ticket.

Photo: Virginia Lottery