North Carolina Woman Thought She'd 'Have A Heart Attack' After $700K Win

A woman in North Carolina had to "calm" herself down after landing a massive prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket, joking that she thought she would have a "heart attack" when seeing just how much she won.

Donna Smith , of Huntersville, picked up a $10 Triple 776 ticket from the Run-In on Gilead Road on Sunday (June 16), something that isn't too out of the ordinary for her as she has enjoyed buying scratch-off lottery tickets for years, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery .

"That's how I like to entertain myself," she said, adding that she just had a feeling that she needed to purchase this specific ticket. "That was just what my mind told me to buy."

It was a good thing, too, that she followed that feeling as she quickly discovered she won one of the game's top prizes of $700,000.

"I thought I was going to have a heart attack," she joked. "I had to calm myself down."

Smith claimed her prize at lottery headquarters on Monday (June 17), taking home an impressive total of $500,503 after all required state and federal tax withholdings and telling lottery officials that she was "just happy to be here" to collect her winnings . She also revealed her plans for the prize, which include paying off her house and car as well as donating to her church and helping out her family."