North Carolina Woman 'Thought I Was Asleep' After Scoring Lottery Jackpot

A woman in North Carolina thought was dreaming when she scored a massive jackpot win , but lucky for her it was very real.

Vickie Koch , of Raleigh, recently purchased a $2 ticket in the Bison Bonanza digital instant game, a favorite past time of hers as she settles down and relaxes at night. However, her routine on Wednesday (June 5) changed a bit when she landed the $728,048 jackpot, beating the 1 in 15.5 million odds of winning the top "Epic jackpot" level and scoring the second largest digital instant win since the lottery began offering digital instant games in November, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery .

"I kept pinching myself thinking I would wake up. I thought I was asleep, I really did," she said, adding, "I was just sitting there, like I was numb. This is just such a huge blessing ."

Koch claimed her prized at lottery headquarters this week, taking home an impressive $520,555 after all required state and federal tax withholdings. According to lottery officials, she plans to use her winnings to take a girl's trip to "somewhere tropical" and save some to invest in her grandchildren's future education.

"The first thing I was thinking was, 'What can I do to help my family,'" she recalled. "I wan tot use this to set up an education trust for my grandchildren's college."