Poplar Bluff woman wins $100,000 lottery prize

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Rachel Thompson of Poplar Bluff was bored Aug. 6, so she decided to take a trip to a local store to get a couple of Lottery tickets. What happened while walking out of Calhoun's Foods, 505 Sycamore St. in Poplar Bluff, turned her weekend into one she would never forget.

Thompson "couldn't believe it" when she uncovered the $100,000 top prize on the Missouri Lottery "$100,000 Taxes Paid" Scratchers ticket in the store's parking lot.

"I turned around, and I went back inside," Thompson recalled. "I asked [the clerk] if I was looking at it right, and she said, 'Yes, you're looking at it right.'"

The shocked 24-year-old immediately called her boyfriend to share the news.

Lottery offices were closed for the weekend, so after clutching the ticket tightly in her hand for several hours, she put it in a lock box at home until she was able to claim the prize at a Lottery office.

Thompson, who "won $1,000 two years ago" on a Missouri Lottery Scratchers ticket, plans to use the windfall to buy a new vehicle and a house.

Pertinent address:

505 Sycamore St., Poplar Bluff, MO