Quick Stop for Snuff Nets Lilburn Woman $1 Million Lottery Ticket

A quick stop at a local convenience store changed Penelope Henritze's life in more ways than she could have imagined -- one million to be exact.

The Lilburn woman was on her way home from work when her "sweetheart" called and asked her to run a quick errand for him.

"He called, and said, 'Stop and get me some snuff,'" Henritze, 68, recalled.

She obliged, stopping at the Texaco Food Mart on Britt Road in Tucker. She picked up his favorite: Longhorn smokeless tobacco.

Standing at the cashier's station, the Georgia Millions instant game card caught her eye.

"I thought, 'Yeah I need to try the Millions,'" she recalled on Thursday while standing in the gas station where she bought the ticket. "That's the first one that I'd touched."

The gas station actually has a knack of turning out winners, said store owner, Sameer Lalani. A "wall of fame" goes up every month with the winning scratch-off tickets bought by his customers.

"There comes a point at the end of the month when the whole thing is full," he said, "so we have to take it down and start over again."

"This has always been a lottery store for us," he added.

When Henritze stepped back inside her truck that evening of Dec. 28, it was too dark tell if she'd actually won something from the scratch-off. Once she got home, she asked her "sweetheart," 54-year-old Johnny Weaver, to have a look.

"When she first got it, she didn't know if she's won or not," he said. "She said, 'Johnny, check this.' And, I said, 'You're a millionaire.' I just thought I was gonna pass out."

The very next day, the couple moved on buying a farm situated on nearly eight acres in nearby Snellville. They are days away from closing on the property. Henritze also plans to buy a donkey, chickens and a horse, which Weaver said he's going to teach her how to ride.

She already has the saddle.