Wythe Co. woman wins $100,000 in Virginia Lottery game

By Jeffrey Simmons
Media General News Service
Published: August 29, 2008

Call it her favorite mistake.

Ivanhoe resident Kathy Cregger was standing in Robin’s Get and Go last Thursday with what she thought was a $1,000 winning scratch-off lottery ticket.

Turns out, though, that she was a couple of zeros off.

A man in line behind her pointed out the error.

“I probably could’ve fainted,” said Cregger who learned from the man that she’d won the top prize in the $100,000 Double Action 2, The Sequel game.

She drove to Abingdon last Friday to claim her check, which amounted to $71,000 after taxes.

Although she took the ticket to Robin’s to have it “run through the machine” to prove it was a winner, Cregger paid $5 for the winning ticket at the Fort Chiswell BP where she works as a cashier.

Cregger bought two or three tickets on Thursday morning before her shift. Store clerks aren’t allowed to get tickets where they’re on the job, she said.

Cregger was coming back from Wytheville that same morning, when she scratched off the winning ticket on her steering wheel.

Before Thursday, the largest prize she had won was $100.  She would have been happy with the $1,000.

Saying that she’s not much of a shopper and doesn’t need anything, Cregger said she’ll probably save her cash for any future rainy day expenses. She’s also keeping her job.

On Wednesday, though, she did use some of the money to finish paying off her 2006 Suzuki Forenza.

“When I paid that payment off, that just made my whole day,” she said.

Christmas at the Cregger household should be pretty good this year, she added.

According to the Virginia Lottery, Cregger was the fourth and last player to claim the top prize in the Double Action game, which will now be closed. The odds of winning $100,000 were one in 795,600.

Hoping that her lucky streak will continue, Cregger, who won $7 and $25 this week, is still playing other lottery games, including those with payouts in the millions instead of thousands.

“Maybe I’ll luck up and hit it (the big one),” she said.

Jeffrey Simmons can be reached at 228-6611 or .