JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- For most people, when something flashy catches their eye, it is typically a piece of jewelry or a sports car. For the deputy director at the Mission and Installation Contracting Command-Fort Polk, La., it was a $5 scratch-off lottery ticket.
After Simone Curtis finished visiting with her sister, she made a quick stop at a nearby Circle K convenience store to buy tickets for a multi-state lottery. At the register, a flashy $5 "Cash Frenzy" scratch-off lottery ticket caught her eye, and she asked to cashier to add one of them to her purchase.
"I always say if you want to win big, you've got to play big," Curtis said.
She returned home and began making a late breakfast before giving the scratch-off ticket another thought. Using a spoon, she paused from her cooking to scratch the ticket and reveal its numbers.
"By the time I got to the last number, I was just hoping to win my $5 back," she said.
Upon finding a match with that last number, she went to a nearby convenience store to verify whether or not the ticket was a winner. The clerk verified it was a winning ticket, but could only refer her to the nearest lottery claims office to learn the amount.
Curtis requested a day of leave Oct. 22 to travel to Alexandria, La., where she was overwhelmed to discover the ticket was a $100,000 top prize winner. Lottery officials presented her with a check and a W-2.
"I was a nervous wreck driving back home to the bank with that amount of money in my car," she said.
Although the amount of money may pales in comparison to the multimillion dollar contracts for which she manages, she said it is the odds that strike her as more amazing.
"The odds and probability that I was in that town and picked that location to buy a ticket, it definitely happens once in a lifetime," Curtis said.
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