RALEIGH – Jeanette Richardson, a diesel engine technician from Enfield in Halifax County, plans to use a portion of the $100,000 she won playing Diamond 7’s to pay off her auto loan.

Richardson was at home on Friday night when she scratched off the $5 game’s top prize.

“I kept thinking I had won a hundred dollars, then a thousand,” Richardson said. “When I saw that last number in there, I could not believe my eyes. I could barely sleep that night.”

Richardson also plans to use a portion of her winnings, worth $68,001 after taxes were withheld, to pay bills and take care of her family. She purchased her winning ticket at the Journigan Food Stores on N.C. 561 in Hollister.

“I’m very happy,” Richardson said as she collected her prize. “I have a check in my hand and I’m going right to the bank.”

As of Monday afternoon, four top prizes of $100,000 and many other prizes remain unclaimed in the game.

Ticket sales for games such as instant scratch-offs have enabled the lottery to raise more than $2.58 billion for education initiatives statewide. Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Halifax County education programs received more than $14.7 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, and need-based college scholarships and financial aid.