Two Lynchburg-area women win $1 million from lottery

Whatever else friends are for, in the case of Debra Jefferson and Ingrid Olson, they’re for sharing a cool, tax-free $1 million.

Jefferson, of Madison Heights, and Olson, of Lynchburg, often played the lottery together, but never with significant returns.

All of that changed Saturday, when the pair won the million dollar prize in Virginia’s Tax Free Million lottery.

“I was like, oh my God, we just won a million dollars,” Olson said. “And then (Jefferson) took off running through the store.”

Jefferson said she couldn’t contain herself when she saw the winning code on the ticket.

“Screamed, cried, prayed, I was just crazy, you know, just totally in shock,” Jefferson said.

On Saturday morning, Jefferson walked into the Quik-E Food store where Olson works as a manager, with the intent to spend more money on tickets than the friends ever had. Olson asked how much.

“She said, ‘How about a hundred apiece,’” Olson said.

Friends for more than two years, the two had played the lottery together on numerous occasions, but had never spent that much on tickets at a time.

Nor had they ever had as much success as they did Saturday.

Olson said early on, it didn’t look like much of a return would come from the 10 tickets they had purchased.

“We thought, maybe we’d hit like $500, win our money back,” Jefferson said.

But on ticket number seven, the two found their fortunes, and lives, instantly changed.

The Tax Free Million game, in order to give away the full million, actually pays out $1,408,500. The extra $408,500 goes to federal and state income tax, so the winner actually receives $1 million.

The game also paid dividends for the store, which sits at the corner of Lakeside Drive and Monticello Avenue.

Todd Burgess, who owns the store, said the store has never seen a success this big.

“It made me play the lottery,” he said.

The store, one of 12 Quik-E Food Stores Burgess owns, received a check for $10,000, just for selling the lucky ticket.

As for Jefferson and Olson’s plans for the money, getting debt-free is a priority for both.

Jefferson and her husband have two children in college, and she said money would definitely travel that way. Olson has a 17-year-old son. Both Olson and Jefferson plan to keep their current jobs.

Olson said the money, seen in the proper light, isn’t enough to go wild with.

“It’s just money,” she said. “It’ll get me out of debt.”

Olson said that, though the money isn’t enough to retire on by itself, wise spending and saving could help to stretch it out.

“If you’ve got your head on there straight and you figure out where you want to put it, what you want to do with it, use it for the right things, it’ll still be there when the future comes, for you to retire,” she said.

Does she to press her luck in the lottery again? “Probably not,” Jefferson said simply.

Friends Debra Jefferson (left) and Ingrid Olson smile after receiving a joint $1 million check from the Virginia Lottery. They won after buying ‘Tax Free Million’ scratch-off tickets at a Quik-E-Food store in Lynchburg. JILL NANCE/THE NEWS & ADVANCE