LOUISVILLE —A Fleming County couple is counting their lucky stars, and their cash, after hitting it big on a Kentucky Lottery scratch-off ticket.

Patricia Lovelace, and her husband Tony, of Ewing, traveled to Kentucky Lottery headquarters Thursday to claim a $250,000 lottery prize.

“I’m a nervous wreck. I can’t stop shaking,” Lovelace told lottery officials. She had felt this way ever since scratching off a $10 50X The Cash ticket she’d bought on her way home from work on Tuesday.

The Ewing resident doesn’t play the lottery very often, just when the moment strikes her, she said. On Tuesday, while driving home from work, she had decided she was going to stop off at Ewing Handi-Mart specifically to buy a couple of tickets. But first, she had to make a stop at an ATM to get cash. When Lovelace walked up to the register, she asked for two of the 50X The Cash tickets but waited to get home to scratch them off.

“The first one I scratched off wasn’t a winner,” she said. “So, I went on to the second ticket, scratching the numbers off first to see if I matched.” On that ticket Lovelace had matched the number 6 on her ticket.

“I started to scratch off the prize amount when I saw a two and a five. I thought cool, I’ve won $25.” But then she scratched of the first zero and then thought she won $250. “I kept scratching, when I saw a comma. I was like, ‘No way, there’s no way,’” Patricia said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Tony Lovelace, who works as a truck driver, was at work so Patricia Lovelace was home alone when she scratched off the winning number. She tried calling him but received no answer. It turns out, Tony Lovelace was asleep. She said her phone showed where she’d tried to call him 25 times. When she finally got in touch with him, while he was excited, he was also skeptical at first. He told her he’d be home as soon as he could to look at it. They later took the ticket up to a store to check it for themselves.

“I pointed to the screen and told him, ‘See, it’s for real,’” she said.

After taxes, Patricia Lovelace received a check for $177,500. Ewing Handi-Mart will receive a bonus of $2,500 for selling the winning ticket.

“It’s a life-changing amount for us,” Tony Lovelace told lottery officials. Patricia Lovelace, who works part-time is close to retiring. They said the winnings were going to help her to be able to do just that. The couple also plans to build a garage.

Even after she was handed her check, Patricia Lovelace’s hands were still shaking.

“This is still such a shock,” she said.

Tony and Patricia Lovelace with thier “big” winnings.
https://maysville-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_Patricia-Lovelace-1.jpgTony and Patricia Lovelace with thier “big” winnings.