JACKSON HEIGHTS — Spring cleaning can make you feel like a million bucks, especially when the cash lands in your pocket.
And that holds true for Jackson Heights pre-school teacher Lolymary Questel, 35, who discovered a $1 million winning lottery ticket after she cleaned out her messy purse in mid-April, the New York Post reported.
According to the paper, Questel discovered the discarded Sweet Million lottery tickets she bought last May and decided to check the numbers on the lottery’s website before throwing them away.
"I went on the computer and I checked one, and I put it aside. I went back and checked another, and I’m like, ‘It’s not happening,’ she told the paper Wednesday. So, I’m like, ‘OK. I’ll check another’ — and I won!"
Questel’s spring cleaning came at a perfect time, the Post said. If she had waited any longer, she would have missed the one-year deadline this weekend to collect the cash.
Questel took the lump-sum payment of $623,000 — money she hopes to stash away for her two kids’ college education, the Post reported.
"The moral of her story is, don’t throw away old tickets without checking them first," lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman told The Post.
"She would have been throwing away a million dollars."
