Lottery games

Dana Walsh, of Oneida County, won the grand prize in the $2,500 a Week for Life ticket.

(File photo)

CLINTON, N.Y. -- Dana Walsh, of Clinton, was out running errands when she stopped at Kinney Drugs and purchased two Lottery scratch-off tickets.

She purchased a "$2,500 a Week for Life" game ticket that contained the jackpot winning combination earning her and her husband, Robert, a $2.5 million payday.

"I was sitting in the parking lot of the Dollar General and remembered the tickets in my purse," she said. "I scratched them and when I saw the matching 11s on the win for life ticket I knew I had won a prize. When I saw the word 'life' underneath, I was in shock. I kept looking around for the cameras because I thought it was a joke."

Walsh drove back to Kinney Drugs at 12 Franklin Ave., and scanned the $5 ticket to make sure it was real.

"Not only did I scan it at Kinney Drugs, I took it to another store and scanned it twice to be sure," she said. "Every time I scanned the ticket it said 'big winner' so I knew it must be real."

Walsh finally called her husband who was in Florida at the time.

"I called Bob four times before he got around to calling me back," she said. "At first he thought something was wrong, but when I told him the news he was a little hesitant to believe me. It wasn't until he got home about a week later that it really sank in."

The couple opted to split their prize and chose the lump-sum payment option. Each will receive a net check totaling $659,061 after required withholdings.

"This is all still very unreal for both of us," Walsh said. "Our initial plans for the money are to pay off our mortgage and our son's student loans. After that, we'll all get new cars."

According to the latest games report from the NY State Lotto, the game still has three unclaimed grand prize tickets. There are also 158 unclaimed second prize tickets worth $3,000 each.

The actual odds of winning the grand prize before any winners were claimed was 1 in 5,191,200. Tickets cost $5 each.