A scheduling mix-up turned a frustrating mistake into a $125,000 payday for a Knox County woman after her husband bought her a Kentucky Lottery $5 Queen of Hearts Scratch-off.

The anonymous winner admitted her lucky day started off on the wrong foot.

“I went in to get my tires changed, and they said they didn’t have me on the schedule for the day,” she said. “I was like ‘oh that’s weird. I already paid for it.’”

She quickly realized the problem. “I had the date wrong!” she laughed.

Capitalizing on the trip out of the house, she and her husband decided to leave the car parked at the Barbourville Walmart Auto Center and walk next door to grocery shop.

As they checked out, she said her husband offered to bring the car around to the front door. On his way out, a Kentucky Lottery vending machine caught his eye.

“He said, ‘I got you one and I got me one,’” she recalled, referring to the $5 Queen of Hearts ticket and the $5 King of Spades ticket. Both tickets launched in the middle of May by the Kentucky Lottery.

Riding shotgun as the couple drove home, she scratched the first play area on her Queen of Hearts ticket. She didn’t uncover the prize amount right away, only the symbols.

“I saw the red heart and thought, ‘Wait… I need to read the instructions again.’ Then I scratched the amount, and I started freaking out. I said, ‘There’s no way. This is not real life.’”

Her husband, who had pulled the car over in a nearby parking lot, told her that she might be reading it wrong, but after downloading the Kentucky Lottery mobile app to check the ticket, he was able to confirm that she was holding a $125,000 winning ticket.

“I freaked out. This doesn’t happen to us. I’ve been freaked out since 9:30 this morning,” she told Lottery officials when she came to claim her prize – $90,625 after taxes.

The morning had already been full of lottery luck for her family. Her mother had won $100 that same day playing a ticket the winner had gifted for Mother’s Day.

Wanting to share the news of her big win, the winner tried to call her mom three times without success. She left a voicemail instead.

“I was like ‘I have life changing news and you’re not answering me,” she joked. “But she finally called back and was so excited for me.”

The Knox County winner said the prize provides much needed peace of mind as she plans to put it toward a house and buy two new cars for the family.

Walmart in Barbourville will receive $1,250 for selling the winning ticket