Internet meme inspires an uncanny lottery win and a memorable claim

By Kate Northrop

CHAVIES, Ky. — A Kentucky woman brought in and posed with a carton of eggs while claiming a $281,651 online lottery prize at the Kentucky Lottery headquarters.

Word spread quickly around Kentucky Lottery headquarters that a lottery winner had walked into the building carrying a winning ticket and a carton of eggs.

It was Hazel Morris and her husband, Dale, who had set Lottery staff abuzz last week with an unusual prop to accompany her prize claim. The Chavies resident had scooped up a $281,000 prize while playing the Elephant King Instant Play game online, but what was with the eggs?

Hazel told Lottery officials that she had been sending people a meme about the current state of egg prices, which was a humorous picture of an open refrigerator door filled with nothing but eggs. Under the photo was a caption that said, "I wouldn't tell anyone I won the lottery but there will be signs."

She never thought that it had actually meant she would win the lottery, but perhaps the single carton of eggs she brought in that day would be the first of many.

The evening before her eggceptional win, Hazel was playing Kentucky Lottery Instant games online. She decided to call it quits and turn in for the night while she still had money left in her account.

"I started playing the day before, and I went up to like a hundred dollars," Hazel told the Kentucky Lottery. "I thought, well, I'm gonna cash out, but something said to hang onto it and play for the next few days."

She returned home from work on March 15 and found herself playing once again. In no time, she became that evening's Elephant King Instant Play jackpot winner of a $281,651 prize.

"I only played five or six hands and was betting a dollar at a time. I saw that Mega thing come up and boom, there it was!" she recalled of seeing the eggspecially huge jackpot amount flash on her screen. "Suddenly, I saw the winning notification come up, and I just started shaking. I sat there for a long time, and I just started thanking God. I couldn't believe it was real."

It's not eggsaggerting to say that Hazel was stunned into silence.

"I couldn't holler for him [Dale] because I couldn't talk," she continued. "I thought, well, I don't know if this is real. I knew if it was real I'd get an email from the Kentucky Lottery."

She mustered the strength to call for her husband, but her shaken appearance left him with a bad impression.

"What's wrong?" Dale asked.

"I got him by the hands, and I said, 'I've done something,'" Hazel had responded.

"What have you done now?" he questioned further.

"I think I've hit the lottery!"

"You've done what?"

She took a screenshot of the win and sent it to her daughter, who advised her to double check her transactions and play history. Hazel found an email from the Kentucky Lottery in her inbox — all the details lined up to confirm that she had indeed won the jackpot.

"It's real mom, it's real," her daughter said.

She and her daughter then teamed up to inform the next person in the family — Hazel's son, who is serving in the Air Force. They called him on FaceTime to deliver the news, but he was even more skeptical.

"He thought it wasn't real at first, but I was able to prove it to him," Hazel said to Lottery officials.

On March 19, Hazel and Dale walked into Lottery headquarters in Louisville, egg carton in-hand, to claim her prize, which came to $202,789.01 after taxes.

Hazel can certainly afford her own full refrigerator of eggs if she so pleases, but having worked in the kitchen at the Eastern Kentucky Veteran Center for nearly 22 years, she has other plans for the winnings.

"I plan to pay off my bills and use the money as a cushion for retirement," the Chavies resident said. "It's not enough to retire on, but it will certainly help." She added that she'll also help their children and those who have been there for them in the past.

"I went to a local bakery and got donuts to celebrate," Hazel mentioned. "It's a life-changing event, and I'm grateful for this blessing."

"She does a lot in the community and helps out," Dale added. "It's well deserved."

(Click to display full-size in gallery)Hazel Morris and her husband, Dale, claimed her $281,651 lottery prize while holding a carton of eggs.

(Click to display full-size in gallery)Once you see the meme, it makes sense and is pretty funny.