Cd'A woman wins $250,000

BOISE - Mystery solved.

A Coeur d'Alene woman cashed in a $250,000 lottery ticket on Wednesday, two weeks before payout on the Mega Millions ticket was set to expire.

Lavonne Hutchison, a Lake City resident for the past 34 years, purchased the ticket for the April 16 draw at the Safeway Store on Fourth Street in Midtown. Having kept the winning ticket in her purse for nearly six months, Hutchison finally had it checked recently when she was shopping for groceries.

"There was somebody behind the customer service counter when I was in the store, so I thought maybe I'd better check it," Hutchison said in a press release issued Wednesday by Idaho Lottery. "Good thing, too."

The store employee told Hutchison she had to sign it and mail it to the Idaho Lottery Office in Boise.

"I'd thought I'd done something wrong," Hutchison said.

The employee went on to explain that the ticket was worth more than they could pay - a prize over $600 - but did not know how much the ticket was precisely worth.

"We knew there was a winning ticket out there," said Jennifer Lemke, Safeway assistant manager. "But you kind of start to forget about it. Tickets get lost or thrown away. You never know what's happened to them."

The Fourth Street store did mention to Hutchison, however, that they had sold a Mega Millions winner matching all five of the first numbers - but not the Mega Ball - leading up to the April 16 draw. The Idaho Lottery was still waiting for its winner.

"I told them I was lucky, but not that lucky," said Hutchison.

Hutchison mailed the ticket to the Boise office not knowing the ticket's real value. She had insured it for $600, the value the store had said it had at the minimum.

Once the ticket arrived - around two weeks before it was set to expire- Idaho Lottery verified the ticket and called Hutchison to offer congratulations.

"I had no idea why they were calling to congratulate me for a $600 winner," said Hutchison. "They asked me if I knew how much it was worth and I said $600. That's when they told me it was worth $250,000. I just about passed out."

Although she shops at the Safeway Store on Fourth Street, Hutchison had not played the lottery or bought a lottery ticket from the store since last April.

"She came back to the store around seven days later and said, 'yup, that was me,'" Lemke said. "I think she said something like, 'I know I'll have my retirement set up.'"

That ticket is the biggest winner the Midtown grocery store has produced. For their part in selling the ticket, Safeway Corporation will receive a bonus of $20,000 from the Idaho Lottery.

"For our little store I think that's the biggest one we had," Lemke said. "It was kind of neat she came back in and told us."

Hutchison's first call after speaking with the lottery was to her financial and retirement planner.

"I was researching going back to work, but this just might have changed my mind," Hutchison said.

She picked up her winning check Wednesday in Boise.

"It gives everyone a chance to believe," Lemke said of the random winner. "It can happen to anyone."

Staff writer Tom Hasslinger contributed to this report.