A San Jose liquor store got a $1 million bonus for selling the winning ticket for the $543 Mega Millions jackpot, as California and the rest of the world waited to learn who was the only one to nail all the numbers in Tuesday night’s drawing.
The winning numbers were 1-2-4-19-29, with the Megaball number 20. Eight other tickets matched the five white balls Tuesday to win the game's second prize, with six of them worth $1 million each, and two that included the optional Megaplier, making them worth $3 million each.
The person who purchased the winning lottery ticket has one year to claim the jackpot.
Ernies Liquors store owner Kewal Sachdev and his wife Kiren were all smiles about their bonus for selling the winning ticket, KGO-TV reported.
"It's amazing," Sachdev, 65, said at a news conference on Wednesday. "It's like a dream come true."
Sachdev said a store employee woke him up at home with a phone call to inform him that the store had sold the winning ticket, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
"We were wishing, and the wish came true today," Sachdev said. "I'm still digesting what happened. I don't know at this time how to react."
Sachdev told the Mercury News that his store sold about 4,000 tickets ahead of Tuesday's drawing, but admitted that total did not seem high considering the monster jackpot.
The Mercury News said it was the second time a San Jose store had sold a winning Mega Millions ticket with a monster jackpot. A gift shop sold a winning ticket for $656 million, one of two winning tickets in December 2013.
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