Stuck on the side of a road with a flat tire, Tamara Ortiz of Fayetteville realized luck was on her side when she checked her email and discovered she was the winner of a $100,000 lottery prize.

“I was having a really, really bad day,” recalled Ortiz. “I had a friend come get me and he had to put on his hotspot for me to use my phone and I said, ‘Well, let me just check my emails and my stuff real quick.’”

When she came across the email from the lottery notifying her of her big win, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “I looked at it and I dropped my phone,” she said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know if this is real!”

Ortiz’s entry was chosen from over 10,906,000 entries in the third 2020 Multiply the Cash second-chance drawing on Sept. 9. Winners of second-chance drawings receive a phone call or email notifying them that they won.

“I believe in second chances,” said Ortiz. “And now I’m an even bigger believer in second chances! I just think that it is a great opportunity.”

Ortiz, who works as a store manager at a convenience store, claimed her prize Tuesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required federal and state tax withholdings, she took home $70,750.

“It’s going to help us tremendously especially with transportation,” said Ortiz. She plans on buying herself some “reliable transportation”, and has her eye on a Honda Accord.

One 2020 Multiply the Cash second-chance drawing remains. Each drawing offers 34 prizes including the grand prize of $100,000, eight $5,000 prizes, and 25 prizes of $500.

The final drawing is scheduled for Feb. 3. You can enter any of your Multiply the Cash tickets via the lottery’s website or scan the ticket’s bar code using the NC Lottery Official Mobile App.

Ticket sales from scratch-off games make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $725 million a year for education. For details on how $21.8 million made a difference in Cumberland County in 2019, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.