A Pittsburgh-area woman won $1 million from a lottery ticket. But her victory is bittersweet.
FREEPORT, PA. (KDKA) — At a BP gas station on Thursday morning in Freeport, everyone was all smiles.
Everyone was celebrating Karen Coffman winning $1 million from a scratch-off ticket she bought at this same service station in March.
This isn't the first time Coffman has won while playing the Pennsylvania Lottery. Fourteen years ago, she won $65,000 on a scratch-off ticket. And just a few weeks before hitting the million, she won $500 on a scratcher. All of the tickets were purchased at this same location.
This win was a bit bittersweet, however, because Karen's husband, Rob, died from a brain tumor two weeks after she won. Coffman said as her husband was passing, he was worried that she wouldn't be taken care of once he was gone.
"Throughout the years, I kept telling him, 'You watch, one of these days, I am going to hit the million,'" Coffman said.
"You watch and see, and he would just laugh at me and say, 'Yeah, right.' And I was like, 'Come on, with my luck. You know I am going to hit.' And then whenever I hit, I said to him, I said, 'Rob, you can go ahead and go. You don't have to worry. I'll be ok.'"
Karen says she is grateful for this windfall and she says she truly feels that her husband had a hand in her winning before he passed.
Aside from a Disney trip for her immediate relatives, Karen plans to move south and wisely invest most of her winnings to continue to help her family.