ALBUQUERQUE – Two co-workers from Talon/LPE in Artesia won a $75,000 New Mexico Lottery jackpot.
David Adkins of Artesia and Margaret Ruiz of Carlsbad had a winning ticket for the top prize in the March 12 Roadrunner Cash drawing. Their quick-pick ticket matched the winning numbers of 5, 12, 25, 30 and 37.
Above: pictured are David Adkins and Margaret Ruiz, winners of the Roadrunner Cash drawing
Although Adkins purchased the ticket, Ruiz was holding it. After discovering it was a winner, Ruiz immediately began calling Adkins, who was in an oil field and out of cell phone range.
“I must have called him at least five times,” Ruiz recalled for lottery officials in Albuquerque Wednesday. “I thought I was going to have to send smoke signals.”
When they finally connected, Ruiz said her co-worker was thrilled.
“I was doing the happy dance,” Adkins said, a move Ruiz demonstrated by bobbing her head and swinging her outstretched arms in wide circles.
Adkins and Ruiz, who began playing lottery games together two years ago, split the $75,000 jackpot in equal shares. Both players said they plan to bank their prizes.
And both said they would continue buying tickets together because Ruiz has a great-niece attending New Mexico University in Carlsbad on a Legislative Lottery Scholarship.
“She tells me to keep playing the lottery because it’s helping with her education,” Ruiz said.
The winners’ lucky ticket was bought at Stripes No. 138 located at 3800 S. Main St. in Roswell. The store has sold three other large prize-winning lottery tickets ranging between $17,000 and $200,000.
Last month, two stores in Artesia sold lottery tickets paying top-tier prizes. Smokes to Go at 812 W. Main St. sold a $10,000-winning Scratcher to Loco Hills resident Debra Carre. Allsup’s Store No. 211 at 1301 Hermosa Drive sold a $10,000-winning Scratcher to Jessica Vasquez of Albuquerque.
Legislative Lottery College Scholarships
Since 1996, the New Mexico Lottery has raised $509.6 million for education and more than 75,300 students have attended college on Legislative Lottery Scholarships. As of the Spring 2011 semester, more than 2,200 students from Eddy County have received $9 million in Legislative Lottery Scholarships.