After She's Cut Off, Driver's Luck Turns

Next time you're about to make an angry gesture at another Northern Virginia driver, or go bumper-to-bumper in a game of chicken over that looming merge lane, just consider: You could be making the other guy rich.

Margaret Penn hit the Virginia Lottery's $1,000-a-week jackpot last week, thanks to bad traffic and bad manners.

Penn, a retired bank manager who lives in Springfield, wanted to turn left off Old Keene Mill Road into a 7-Eleven so she could buy a lottery ticket on the way home. But the cars just kept on coming, and not a soul would let her into the left lane, so she missed the turn.

Penn, who calls herself "cool as a cucumber," did not get riled up. She just drove her 1999 Crown Victoria up the road a bit to the 7-Eleven at 8319 Old Keene Mill Rd. That's where she usually buys her lottery tickets, anyway. She bought two Pick 4 numbers, a chance at the Mega Millions jackpot and, with only $5 left, plunked down change on a "Win for Life" scratch-off card.

A sixth sense urged her to start scraping off the card's coating before she even got to her car, and suddenly gridlock in Northern Virginia was paying off. Penn, 66, will receive $1,000 a week for life.

Penn said she could not believe her good fortune at first. She said the drive home seemed to take forever. And what if she had a terrible crash?

Her husband, Jerry, 65, thought the worst when she came through the door, looking rattled.

"He said, 'What's wrong?' " Penn recalled. "He thought I wrecked the car. He said I was shaking."

Now, the Penns are pulling out the travel brochures. He wants to visit New Zealand. She has a four-day cruise or a trip to Italy in mind.

"I bless all these people now in Northern Virginia, all these drivers," Penn said.

The odds of winning were 1 in 305,600, or about what it feels like to be on the Beltway between Interstate 66 and the American Legion Bridge at rush hour.

About 50 percent of the Virginia Lottery's games are now scratch-offs, said John Hagerty, a lottery spokesman. The $1,000 Win for Life game began in September 2004 with nine top prizes. After Penn's win, there are two remaining, Hagerty said.

Penn said she has bought the occasional Win for Life card ever since the game started. She usually purchases about four games a week, and she has won a few, including a $5,000 haul while living in Pennsylvania. But she had never won anything like this. She said the winnings will come in handy for her retirement -- and for that long-awaited trip.

"My husband and I have never been on a real vacation at all,'' said Penn, who has been married since 1964. "We didn't even go on a honeymoon."