Kathleen is an avid Instant Games player and a big fan of the Crossword games. She enjoys the extra time it takes to scratch and review the game board.
She typically limits the ticket purchase price to five dollars. While on her lunch break, she visited a newly opened Quick Chek #146 located at 2 South Jefferson Rd., Whippany in Morris County.
While she was there she bought three, five dollar Crossword tickets. To her pleasure, she realized that she won $25. She then purchased two additional five dollar Crosswords, holding on to her initial $15. Again, finding that she had won, this time $30, she purchased a $20 Mega Crossword.
On that final ticket purchase, Kathleen parlayed her initial win into a $500,000 top-prize win.
Kathleen and her husband David will apply the winnings to some bills as well as their children's college expenses.
Ali Said and Ali Najjar, age 18 and 19, are students from North Bergen. The two men decided to split the cost of a five dollar instant ticket when they entered Fiji Meadowland LLC located at 7601 Bergenline Ave., North Bergen in Hudson County. Said and Najjar scratched off the ticket together.
The five dollar ticket returned a $10 prize, which they flipped into a $10 ticket. Next, the $10 ticket
revealed a $20 prize; “today was their lucky day,” they said to one another. They wanted to play the $20 on a big ticket, but couldn’t decide between two of the options.
They grabbed a nearby penny, assigned an outcome for heads and tails, and proceeded to flip. When the penny returned tails four times in a row, the ticket choice was determined - a $20 Mega Crossword game.
The Mega Crossword revealed itself to be a $50,000 winner. Said and Najjar jumped for joy and danced around the store for a few moments. They lost their lucky penny in the process,
but held their winning ticket tight.
Said and Najjar are college students and will use the prize winnings to assist with tuition.
New Jersey Lottery Instant Games players won more than $98.5 million in prizes in February.