Mega Millions: Texas man claims Mega Millions jackpotA Carrollton man picked up his cash value option prize of $62 million on Monday after winning Friday's Mega Millions jackpot.
Ut Van Nguyen plans to use the money to help with the construction of a religious temple near Duncanville. He and his family will also return to Vietnam to help relatives, the Texas Lottery Commission said in a news release.
Friday's jackpot was worth $101 million.
Nguyen was the first Mega Millions winner in Texas. He drove to Austin to pick up his prize on Monday.
Nguyen spoke mostly through a translator, nephew Phan Tran, the commission said. A telephone listing for him could not be found on Monday evening.
"I found out Saturday morning at the supermarket when the manager there told me somebody in Carrollton won," Nguyen said. "I got a winning numbers printout and quickly saw that I had two of the numbers. When I got home, I picked up the ticket that I had left on the table. 'Oh my God, I said, Oh my God.' "
His daughter Jennifer said she was still sleeping when she heard a commotion in the living room.
"I could hear him crying, and I thought to myself, 'my God, what's wrong with him,' " she said. "When I walked out there, he was standing there hugging my mother and crying like a baby."
Nguyen said he doesn't know what he'll do with the rest of the money.
"I haven't been able to think that far ahead," he said.
Nguyen purchased his Quick Pick tickets at a Sack N Save store. The store is eligible to receive a bonus of $1 million for having sold the winning ticket.
It's the second time the Carrollton store has had a big winner. In March 1994, store clerks sold one of five winning Texas Lotto tickets for a $77 million jackpot.
Nguyen said he routinely buys five lotto tickets on Wednesdays, and five Mega Millions tickets on Fridays.
The winning numbers were 17-10-8-24-39, and the Mega Ball was 52. The jackpot cash value option amount $62,060,880.
Texas joined the Mega Millions multistate lottery in December. The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 135,145,920.
Ut Van Nguyen, the first-ever Texas Mega Millions jackpot winner.
