Some mistakes are easier to live with than others – like the ones that make $2.5 million.
Such was the case with Theresa Smith, who went to a King Soopers on Dec. 21 intent on buying a Powerball ticket with the money she had left over from buying Christmas cookies, but the clerk mistakenly printed out a Colorado Lotto ticket.
However, don’t expect Smith, a 53-year-old retail store manager, to complain. Her ticket hit the jackpot of $2.5 million with the numbers 1, 4, 5, 27, 32 and 38.
Lottery officials said Friday that Smith chose the cash option, which gives her $903,102 after taxes.
But, she almost walked away with nothing.
After hanging onto her mistaken Lotto ticket, Smith was renting movies at an Albertsons in Lowry on Christmas Eve when she decided to check on her luck.
She approached the clerk there, but again a mistake – the bad kind.
Unable to check the winning numbers because another drawing was taking place, the clerk assumed the ticket was a loser. The clerk asked Smith if she wanted to tear up the ticket.
“No,” Smith said.
She found a paper copy of the winning numbers and checked them against her ticket. Not believing her eyes, she asked another patron to verify the winning numbers.
“Congratulations, you just won the Lottery,” the man said, according to lottery officials. “Merry Christmas.”
Smith could not be reached for comment Friday. She told lottery officials that she plans to invest her winnings and perhaps buy a bigger house.
“It just a really wild and exciting Christmas story,” said Kristen Shew, a spokeswoman for Colorado Lottery. “A real twist of fate.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
