FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

 

CONTACT: David Workman

 (208) 334-2600

dworkman@lottery.idaho.gov

 

Northern Idaho Woman Wins $120,000 on Ticket Sold in Sandpoint

 

Boise – Whoever said the holiday season doesn’t last all year has never met Jeanne Bjergo, of Bayview!  Bjergo won $120,000 on a 12 Days of Winning Holiday scratch ticket from the Idaho Lottery when she purchased her ticket from the Exxon Express located at 210 E Superiorin Sandpoint, Idaho.

 

“My husband and I always buy Holiday scratch tickets at Christmas time. I hadn’t won on 12 Days of Winning, and I knew there were some winners left, so I bought one,” explained Bjergo on her rationale for purchasing the game three months after the holiday season ended.

 

Taking home slightly over $80,000 after taxes, Bjergo, along with her husband, who own the Bayview Mercantile store in the small resort community of Bayview, count this as the best belated holiday present ever.  They plan on investing their money into making their business more successful.

 

“We would like to become Lottery retailers at some point,” confessed Bjergo who moved with her husband to northern Idaho four years ago.

 

So what was it like becoming the second six-figure winner in northern Idaho just six weeks after Alice Massey of Rathdrum celebrated a $600,000 Powerball win?

 

“I had a lot of heart palpitations when the clerk checked the ticket and told me I needed to go to Boise to collect my winnings,” described Bjergo. 

 

“When I told my husband, he thought it was an April Fools joke,” laughed Bjergo, as she related her March 31, 2008 experience.

 

While it may not be an April Fools prank, it certainly adds more than a little holiday cheer for the rest of the year!

 

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