One lucky scratch is worth $1 million

12/22/2006

A regular customer at the Snappy Mart near downtown Toledo got a Christimastime surprise yesterday by winning a $1 million prize in an Ohio Lottery instant game.

"I got lucky," said Teri Moschetti, 48, of Toledo, who filed her claim at the lottery's Toledo regional office.

She declined further comment.

She played the $20-a-ticket Cash Winfall, a scratch-off game that has a top prize of $5 million.

The next prize is $1 million, if paid in $50,000 annual installments over 20 years.

Ms. Moschetti chose the cash option, valued at $500,000.

After mandatory federal and state tax withholding of about 31 percent, she will receive $345,000, Marie Kilbane, a lottery spokesman, said.

Adam Awada, of Snappy Mart, 208 Clayton St., sold Ms. Moschetti her lottery tickets yesterday, as he does most days.

"She comes in all the time and buys a ticket," he said. She bought instant tickets yesterday - two $10 tickets and the $20 ticket, he said.

She once won $200, he said.

Mr. Awada recalled that after scratching off the $10 tickets, "she said, 'Oh, my God, I have no luck today. I never win.'•I said, 'Try another.' She scratched another ticket [and said] 'I won a million dollars!' I said, 'No way. Give it to me.' I put it in the computer and the computer said, $1 million [or] $50,000 for 20 years.'•"

He never learned her name - and didn't ask yesterday "because she was too excited. I was scared she'd have a heart attack."

But he'd bantered with her before, as he does with other customers, about how, if she won big, she'd come back and give him something.

A man who won $100,000 last year said he'd return. Mr. Awada never saw him again.

"I wish she'd come back," said Mr. Awada, who works mornings and nights at Snappy and afternoons at Spice Bar and Restaurant downtown.

"Put in the newspaper, hey, don't forget the guy."

They never discussed specifics.

"I told her, 'Anything.' Buy me a car," he said. "Anything."