A man and wife from Thousand Oaks, California, are overnight millionaires after the SuperLotto Plus ticket they purchased last week matched all six numbers in Saturday's draw.
After the winning ticket went unclaimed for two days, California Lottery officials announced Monday they were looking for the winners.
Mike and Lynda Weeks came forward Tuesday afternoon to claim their $30 million prize. The couple decided to take the cash option of $19.9 million.
The Weeks' winning numbers: 35, 17, 8, 31, 11 and 7.
The couple refused to give the lottery office more personal information about themselves to be released to the public, lottery spokesperson Alex Traverso said.
"They are trying to remain as anonymous as possible by releasing as few details as possible," Traverso said.
Lottery officials are legally required to release the winner's name, where the ticket was purchased and the amount won, he said.
The 7-Eleven at 1773 Thousand Oaks Blvd., where the ticket was purchased, is also a winner.
The convenience store gets $150,000 — a half percent bonus for selling the jackpot ticket — that will be split evenly between the corporation and the local franchise owner, Madhysudan Sandhu.
"With the money my employees will get a bonus, and we'll have a customer appreciation day sometime in the beginning of November," Sandhu said.
When I win I wil remain ANONYMOUS too! Congrats to the winners!
Nice win .......... and I hope that they are not badgered by the greedy envious people!
Lottery officials are legally required torelease the winner's name, where the ticket was purchased and the amount won, he said
I thought winners in California could remain anonymous.
"Lottery officials are legally required to release the winner's name, where the ticket was purchased and the amount won, (Alex Traverso) said.
I'm calling BS on this one. Alex Traverso the lotto spokesman, needs to get his facts straight. Lottery officials are NOT legally required to release the winner's name. How many times have we read a California SuperLotto Plus winner claim the prize anonymously? As in the winner's name was never given out to the public.
Check out these other news stories of people winning the California SuperLotto and not have their names given out.
$31 million lottery claimed by anonymous winner
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/173483
Anonymous winner claims $23M Calif. lottery jackpot
https://www.lotterypost.com/news/215346
Mike and Lynda Weeks should have gotten a lawyer to protect their identities or at the very least, they should have printed out news articles like these and shown the lotto officials and prove that they can indeed remain completely anonymous.
Good for them for trying to remain anonymous! I just posted this question, sort of, in another thread about how to do it.
Congrats to them!! :)
The people who have remained anonymous usually go to a lawyer and redeem the winnings in some sort of trust that can't be revealed.
Hi JWBlue!
You are correct!
In CA we can claim lottery winnings anonymously........
This couple could have formed a trust, and allowed the trust to claim the prize for them , thus the name of the trust would have been released to the media instead of the names of the actual winners............
Franchise owner has to share the bonus with the parent company?
that settles it. Alex Traverso is either a boldface liar or an incompetent hack. This goes to show you the kind of geniuses working at the lotto office. If you ever win the big one, take the lump-sum and run, don't even trust these fools to manage your money with the annuity.
How hard is it for people to obtain oodles of information based off of someone's name alone?!?! That is why I would do as many of yo usaid -- create a trust or corporation and send that to the public.
I dont know what tax benefits/penalties would come as a result, but for the peace of mind it would be worth it.
Even if you make all your previous information private after yo uwin, records will still exist out there and someone savvy enough can easily look you up.
Next thing you know you have people peering into your windows at 1am; letters and letters pouring into your house daily with a hand out for cash, people hounding you, etc. Or worse, they come after your FAMILY! Heck, it would be bad enough to have to fend off some family members and so called friends who will disown or turn against you for winning!
It is my understanding that a trust does not need to be created.
I thought the CA Lottery Commission don't need to release the names of the winners.
To my understanding, if you win the multi-state lotto in California, the Mega Millions, thelotto officials are required by law to give out your full name and thecity where you purchased the ticket. You can refuse to have your picture taken if you wish. You can not collect through a trust in California, that is for other states like Ohio or Maryland but not California. Look at the winners history for Mega Millions. Every person who collected annymously or who used a trust to collect their money is in another state not California.
http://www.megamillions.com/winners/jackpothistory.asp
If you ever won the multi-state lotto in California, I would suggest talking to a lawyer. The lotto office must release the name of the winner. I personally would change my name to something common and hard to track down, like Alex Smith, David Lopez, Mark Williams, etc and think about changing my name back in the future.
If you win the California state lotto, the California SuperLotto Plus, you can collect without having your name released to the public. Forget what this spokesperson, in the article, Alex Traverso, said, he is misinformed. If you have any doubt about what I'm saying search the forum for past news stories of SuperLotto Plus winners collecting anonymously. There are at least 4 news stories like this.
Mike and Lynda Weeks were given wrong information by lotto officials. If they ever get robbed or assaulted due to their names being released to the public, the lotto office should be held liable.
JWBlue, lottery interviewers give winners the option to have their names published on the lottery website. When my sister-in-law was interviewed (She won the Fantasy 5 Jackpot, $122,000.00) I was there as an interpreter. It was quite emotional for her, but she remembered what I told her about keeping a low profile, and declined to have her story published. You ARE required to furnish your name, address, social security number, driver's license (or other ID) and sign a statement that verifies your documents are genuine. I didn't see any effort by lottery officials to coerce her into having her information released publicly. Her refusal was accepted cordially. It is my opinion that, if you DO win large amounts of money from any source, it is in your best interest not to have that information made public.