Bjergo wins $120K on '12 Days' ticket
—Photo by CAROLINE LOBSINGER Jeanne Bjergo is presented with a check for $120,000 by Idaho Lottery commissioner David Keyes. Bjergo won the prize playing the 12 Days of Winning holiday scratch game. The Bayview resident bought the ticket at the Exxon Express in Sandpoint
SANDPOINT — At first, Jeanne Bjergo thought she’d won $120 in the 12 Days of Winning holiday scratch lottery game.
Then, as she continued scratching, she thought she’d won $1,200 and then, $12,000. It took a few moments to realize she’d actually won $120,000 — the biggest prize awarded in North Idaho in the last six or seven years, according to Idaho Lottery officials.
Bjergo, who bought the Bayview Mercantile with her husband, Scott, a year ago bought the ticket on March 31 at the Exxon Express, 210 E. Superior, in Sandpoint.
Bjergo occasionally treats herself to the $10 scratch tickets on her way back to Bayview after working as a nurse at Heart Clinics Northwest. She hadn’t heard of any big winners and knew there were some prizes left on the 12 Days of Winning game.
“I walked back into the store and the clerk wanted to know what was wrong,” Bjergo said. “I asked him to check my ticket.”
Even though she’d carefully checked her ticket, Bjergo was still stunned when the clerk gave her the news.
“I had a lot of heart palpitations when the clerk checked the ticket and told me I needed to go to Boise to collect my winnings,” she said.
At first her husband didn’t believe her when she called to tell him — Bjergo said he thought she was playing an early April Fool’s Day joke.
After taxes, Bjergo will take home a little more than $80,000. Bjergo said she and her husband count this as the belated holiday present ever. They plan to pay some bills and putting some of the money into their store, she said.
Bjergo is the second six-figure winner in North Idaho. Six weeks ago, Alice Massey of Rathdrum celebrated a $600,000 Powerball win.
Bjergo’s winning ticket also inspired them to move forward with becoming lottery retailers at their own store.
“We would like to become Lottery retailers at some point,” confessed Bjergo who moved with her husband to northern Idaho four years ago.
With the win, that day may come sooner than originally thought.
And, to help the couple out, Idaho Lottery officials brought an information packet for the couple on signing up to be a lottery retailer.