Mega Millions: Ohio store sells winning $106 million Mega Millions lottery ticketOhio has its fourth Mega Millions lottery winner, who will gross $106 million, or a $66,666,686 lump sum.
The Emery Road convenience store that sold the ticket will receive $100,000.
"I'll take the family on vacation," Ajay Patel, 35, owner of Emery Food Mart, said Saturday morning.
He and his wife, Asmita, 30, moved from India to the United States in 1987. They have surpassed the American Dream.
The Patels also sold a winning Super Lotto ticket in 1999 that brought them $5,000. And Ajay's brother-in-law sold Ohio's first winning Mega Millions ticket, for $162 million, at his South Euclid store in December 2003.
Lottery spokeswoman Mardele Cohen advises Friday's winner, who had not yet stepped forward by Saturday evening, to "have a long, cold drink of water and do some research. You'll need an attorney and tax and financial advice before you claim your prize. This is life-changing."
The winner has 180 days to cash in. Most do so anonymously, and most use the automated selection of numbers, as Friday's winner did.
As always, when there are more losers than winners, there are sad stories.
"Yesterday, I didn’t go next door," said James Mallory, lottery player. “I went some place else. And look what happened, I miss out. How can you have such bad luck? I can cry for the rest of my life.”
Ohio joined the multistate game in 2002. This month, California will become the 12th state to participate in the game.
The second Mega Millions win in Ohio, for $20 million, was in Dayton in March 2004. The third, for $52 million, was in Shaker Heights in September 2004.
Millionaire Triangle
Some Ohio residents feel that Cuyahoga County may be the luckiest place in all of the United States, and contains what they term the "millionaire triangle."
From South Euclid to Shaker Heights to Warrensville Heights, three stores within ten miles of each other have all sold a winning Mega Million lottery ticket.
In the last 18 months, the mega haul for the millionaire triangle netted $320 million.
"It’s sort of like, what, a triangle?" said Cohen. "This is very unique."
Also strangely coincidental is the code word found in all the Ohio stores where a winning ticket was purchased.
"They all had the word 'food' in their name," said Cohen.
For Friday's Mega Millions drawing, there were only 220 Mega Million transactions at the Emery Food Mart in Warrensville Heights.
So if you know someone who bought a ticket there, it might pay to be nice to him or her.
