ALBUQUERQUE – After waiting three months to claim a New Mexico Lottery prize of $50,000 because she didn’t want to drive alone to Albuquerque, Sylvia Jimenez of Las Cruces is buying a truck.
Jimenez won a top prize playing the New Mexico Lottery’s “$50,000 Scratch” game. In February, she bought the $5 ticket to play while waiting in a laundromat. After discovering the five-figure prize during the spin cycle, Jimenez signed the ticket, hid it in a dresser drawer and told only her mother.
“As much as I wanted the money, that’s how much I didn’t want to drive here,” Jimenez recalled today for New Mexico Lottery officials. “I kept asking my family, “Who’s going to Albuquerque?”
Today, Jimenez caught a ride with relatives.
“I’m so glad to be here,” she said, adding that every day for the past three months, she’s pulled the ticket from its hiding place to make sure it was real.
Jimenez bought her lucky ticket at Eagle Quik Mart located at 440 W. Picacho Ave. in Las Cruces. Previously, the store has sold 24 large-prize-winning lottery tickets paying between $1,000 and $100,000.
Legislative Lottery Scholarships
All profits from the sale of New Mexico Lottery games fund an in-state college tuition assistance program. Since 1996, the New Mexico Lottery has raised $603.7 million for education and more than 90,000 students have attended college on Legislative Lottery Scholarships.
In the past 18 years, more than 10,320 students from Doña Ana County have received approximately $62 million in Legislative Lottery Scholarships.
More information about Legislative Lottery Scholarships is available at www.nmlottery.com.