WATSON, La. — It's the biggest thing to hit Watson, Louisiana, since the new WalMart; granted, the new superstore opened Wednesday, but it's hard to overshadow an event like that.
"It's hard to believe," says Ingrid King as she sips sweet tea inside Rotolo's restaurant.
Lottery officials say six different $1 million Mega Millions lottery prizes were won from tickets sold at a gas station in Watson, Louisiana.
The winning tickets were drawn in Tuesday's Mega Millions drawing.
Louisiana Lottery officials say earlier this week, a 52-year-old Denham Springs man entered the store to buy a Mega-Millions lottery ticket. He played the same five numbers: 2, 6, 12, 31, and 48. With each play, he chose a different Mega-Ball number, then filled in the "multiplier" box and paid the cashier six dollars.
Tuesday night, the Mega-Millions machine spit out those same five numbers. The 52-year old won $250,000 — three times. When the multiplier ball dropped, his $750,000 quadrupled to $3 million.
He claimed his prize at Louisiana Lottery Headquarters Wednesday.
That alone would be enough to switch the gossip from everyday low prices to millionaires. "It's very crazy, if you want to know the truth," says Micia Hood. She's been making and receiving phone calls all day searching for a relative or friend who might be a freshly minted millionaire. "You can't wait to find out who it is, and you hope it's somebody you know."
But what's even bigger news, is there's another $3 million ticket out there, yet to be claimed.
Apparently, the winning ticket was inadvertently printed twice. According to workers at the store, that ticket sat behind the counter a couple of hours before someone walked in and agreed to buy it.
"If that's the case," says Hood, "then he's supposed to have it. Everybody says, 'Who would have thought Watson would ever have a WalMart?' and then the very next day, you hear that two people — probably someone you know — have been blessed enough to win the lottery. Not one but two."
Call it karma or just a happy accident, but it's got everyone in Watson re-checking their lottery numbers.
After state and federal taxes, the Denham Springs man claimed a total of $2.1 million dollars, lottery spokeswoman Kimberly Chopin said.
The owner of the gas station will receive a bonus of $60,000, or one percent of the prize, for selling the winning tickets.
Some people have great faith in their chosen numbers. I have some numbers I have played for years but they have never come. I guess I'm going to keep playing them and see what happens.
"Apparently, the winning ticket was inadvertently printed twice. According to workers at the store, that ticket sat behind the counter a couple of hours before someone walked in and agreed to buy it."
Another case of an exact duplicate ticket? Let hope the slip was run through twice and not the the computer printing twice "inadvertantly." Anyways, I always buy the mistake tickets my retailer has displayed for sale.
All I can say is WOW! CONGRATS!
Congratulations to BOTH of the lucky winners!!
Dude claimed his prize quick!! lol I don't blame him!
Sometimes it pays big to play your own numbers, nice win and no quick pick
this time around!
Lucky is all I can say, never thought of playing the same number
more than once for the same draw, he turned a smaller prize into his own jackpot!
Congrats to the winner!
Lady Luck is an Equal Opportunity kinda gal! Personal numbers are back in high fashion!
That's interesting, someone using the same numbers multiple times to change the MegaBall. We don't often hear of this happening. It's something I've thought of doing, since you don't win big unless that ball is right.
Congratulations to this guy with his lucky numbers and the person holding the duplicate!
Very shrewd gentleman. Importchips take notice of this one!
Ya know, the more I think about it, I am starting to consider doing this. I rarely win anything on PowerBall & Mega anyways. I look at it like this, a player is either going to rarely match any #'s at all, or even a couple. It just takes that one time to match 5. Instead of buying multiple tickets, I may just stick to a couple lines of the same # with a diff Powerball.
Just like many Mega & PowerBall winners, I am sure they have played the same #'s for years rarely matching multiple #'s or getting close. Then out of no where BAM match all 5 or even 6.
It kinda makes sense to do what this guy did
I recently started playing the megaplier/power play because of the possibility of hitting the second prize, like he did. Guess they did'nt fix the glitch.
Very Nice!
Amazing. And the ticket with the other 3M$ was 'just sitting there'. I bet there are alot of clerks who are kicking themselves now! Congrats to the lucky blessed winners!
Just goes to show that sometimes it pays to buy "mistake" tickets.
Congrats to all.
I've volunteered to kick myself on their behalf! Can you imagine the turmoil those clerks are going through?
Wow, if I wasn't so cheap?
It was only a dollar!
3 million dollars was staring me in the face.
Well the only thing left ot do is to pretend to be excited for the actual winner!
This story is amazing, the winner made a smart move however i have a lottery method that gives me either 5 or 6 of the lottery numbers and i use a wheel off gail howard site if i wouldv'e used her 18number wheel on her site i could have won 5 number prize on ticket number 17.
Sometimes pure dumb luck is the best kind of luck.
I always buy the mistake tickets, they usually win more than the ones you buy.
I always buy those extra tickets that other people don't want as well.
This can be a good strategy, as often a state's or retailer owner's rule is that employees can't purchase those "extra/mistake" lottery tickets (or can't purchase any of the retailer's lottery tickets).
WOW congrats the the winner(s)...
This also happened to me twice during the MM record jackpot, my 5-line and 3-line plays were printed twice and I had to buy them because I did not want the store clerk to win with my numbers...call me greedy lol
the title is some what miss leading, i thought 6 diffrent people had won.
congratz to the winner
Grats to them. Hope they spend/invest it wisely.
Congrats to the winner/s
Wow, talk about lucky. I wonder if they bought a bag of chips and soda with a food stamps card while in the store?
Congrats to the Winner
Actually, I believe the ticket cost $6 as it had 3 lines with the Megaplier. Can you imagine the customers who were offered to purchase the "mistake" ticket and yet declined to do so...probably because of the $6 price
If that is the case, I bet that winner is probably thinking, "Dang it, I could have had $6 million vice just $3 million if I would have only ponied up an additional 6 bucks...which is why I too always buy the mistake ticket. Given how lawsuits have been churning as of late, I wonder if the original purchaser of the ticket who declined the mistake ticket will try to sue the lottery to get the other winning ticket? But that person would not have a case since playing the lottery is a lot like buying life or health insurance...you don't have a contract or possession until money is paid. So for those that didn't get that...insurance application + money = valid contract; money + lottery ticket = valid bearers instrument.
Anyway, I am looking for either a $53 million or $131 million payday this week!
I did not buy the mistake tickets the clerk had made in regard to my transaction today. There were too many of them. lol
I always visualize winning the second level prize, not sure why.
I AM SPEECHLESS!!!
WAY TO GO!!!
wow congrats
Welcome to the LP ScratchOffKING.....
And now a lady in VA has claimed two $1,000,000.00 prizes from one drawing....