One of the more frustrating experiences for homeowners is when the power goes out unexpectedly. But what happens when the power is out on Friday the 13th? For Jenessa Castaneda, Boise, her power outage in June was a lucky occurrence and led to her winning the first top prize in the $3 Scratch Game One-word Cashword.

“I bought the ticket over a month ago and never had a spare minute to scratch it,” laughed Castaneda, a single mother of three. “When the power went out, I couldn’t cook, I couldn’t do the laundry, I couldn’t do anything, so I pulled out the scratch ticket and played it.”

Given she was playing “in the dark”, when she realized she had won the game’s top prize of $30,000 she didn’t believe it.

“I checked the ticket and felt like there was certainly something wrong,” she described. “After I checked it and checked it, I scanned it with the Lottery app on my phone. It said I needed to go to the Lottery Offices.”

Still not believing she had a big winner, once the power was restored, she took the winning ticket to her nearest convenience store. The store’s Lottery terminals confirmed what her phone app had been telling her: she needed to bring it to the Lottery Office to claim.

Castaneda plans to use her winnings to catch up on what she calls the “new modern American dream – getting out of debt.” Paying off bills and supporting her children are her top priorities.

Her winning ticket was sold at the luckiest store in America – Jacksons on Orchard near I-84 in Boise.