HBCU alum collects $2M lottery prize in hilarious golden disguise

The Howard University graduate made sure everyone in D.C. would remember her big day.

A D.C. woman made history by winning a $2 million prize off a scratch-off ticket. Then, in true HBCU alum fashion, she made sure everybody would remember her — while keeping her identity a secret.

The Howard University graduate, who has worked as a civil servant for more than 30 years, showed up to the D.C. lottery offices wearing a sparkly gold top hat, golden dollar sign glasses, a shirt with a ruffled collar designed to look like $100 bills and a face mask.

In April, DC Lottery introduced the Extreme 500X Fortune, its first $50 scratcher. The game features $18M in total cash prizes and a record-setting top prize of $2M, the largest prize amount for a scratch game in DC Lottery history.

Although the winner says she enjoys her work as a civil servant and has been looking into retirement options, she quickly admitted that winning the scratch-off alters a few of her plans now that she’s a millionaire.

“This changes everything!” she said.

The woman, who described herself simply as “Adventure Ready,” chose to accept a one-time payment of $1,520,000 for her winnings instead of the annuitized payments to be made over 20 years.