Mother of two Garina Fearon has 54 millions reasons to smile.
The guard at New York's notorious Rikers Island prison has just won New York's Mega Millions lottery, netting her $54million, about £34million.
Even more astounding is the way she won: The Jamaican-born 34-year-old is by no means a regular lottery entrant, only buying a ticket once every six months or so.
Last week she went to buy a Powerball lottery ticket and by some accident came away from the shop with a Mega Millions ticket.
The fateful ticket stayed in her bag all weekend and Garina didn't give it a thought until Monday when she looked at a newspaper belonging to colleague. She wrote the winning numbers on the back of an inmate pass at the end of her shift.
It was as she waited for the bus home that she realised that she had won.
'I was about to fold up the lottery ticket,' Garina told the New York Post 'Then I saw the numbers, and I started running from one part of the parking lot to the other screaming.'
'I don't know what I'm going to do,' she said. 'It's something unexpected.'
Her first order of business is to to talk to her bosses at Rikers. She says she feels too loyal to the job to just quit, even though she will be the only multi-millionairess in the prison.
'I'm going to go to my job to get some days off,' Garina said. 'I don't want to resign.'
Garina says that she feels loyal to the US Correction service, because the job saved her from near-destitution. Six years ago she down to her last $25 and forced to file for bankruptcy.
Even after she secured the prison job, her bad luck persisted. While she was out at work keeping criminals off the streets burglars broke into her apartment, leaving her with almost nothing.
'I wanted a better life. I was struggling as a single parent. I've really come back from nothing.'
Her main priority will be to take care of her elderly mother.
'I'm from Jamaica,' Garina said. 'I have a sick mother. She has diabetes, and I'm going to buy my mom a house in Jamaica.'
Apart from that, Garina has no firm plans
"I don't know anything about all this kind of money," she said.
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