A Latrobe woman scoops a big jackpot in Pennsylvania scratch off lottery

When Diane Babbin sent her mother, Laura LeBlanc, to the Shop N’ Save in Latrobe last week, she was expecting to receive a thermometer, not a million dollars. “We still haven’t bought the thermometer,” Babbin joked Wednesday.

The 38-year-old Latrobe woman said that her son, Boston Soluri, had stayed home sick from school that day so she asked her mother to get a thermometer and some scratch-off lottery tickets from the store on Dailey Street.

A little while later, Babbin’s mother called and asked her daughter to pick her up because she wasn’t able to drive. Babbin said that her mother had scratched off most of the winning Millionaire Maker game card by the time she got to the store.

Her mom handed her the Pennsylvania Lottery instant ticket to finish scratching. Once Babbin got to the last corner of the card, she realized that her family’s life was about to change.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” Babbin said. “I didn’t really say anything (when I saw that I won), my mouth was on the floor.”