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A woman in North Carolina is celebrating a massive lottery win, telling officials she nearly had "an out-of-body experience" after scoring the half-million prize.
Rhonda Villasenor, of Mebane, recently tried her luck at the Lucky for Life lottery game, purchasing her $2 ticket with Online Play, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery. When Monday's (May 16) drawing came around, she was surprised to find that her ticket matched all five white balls called during the drawing.
"I was screaming so much I was freaking my dogs out. They must have thought something was wrong with me," she joked, adding, "When I saw it said 500,000, I was literally stunned."
Villasenor claimed her prize at lottery headquarters on Thursday (May 19), where she could choose to either accept her prize as an annuity of $25,000 per year for the rest of her life or as a one time, lump sum payment of $390,000. In the end, she chose the latter and took home a grand total of $276,943 after all required state and federal tax withholdings.
When asked what she plans to do with her new winnings, she told lottery officials she has a list of things she'd like to do, including going on vacation and building a pool. She also said she would like to possibly start another business in addition to the concrete company she already owns.