Includes video report
SAN DIEGO — A San Diego woman never has to work another day in her life after cashing in her winning Mega Millions lottery ticket she purchased at a deli near Sorrento Valley.
Laarni Bibal picked up a Quick Pick ticket at the Sorrento Deli Mart at 10920 Roselle Street on June 7. The next day, she heard a winning ticket had been purchased at her favorite store.
"My heart started beating really fast," Bibal told the California State Lottery.
Sure enough, the winning numbers — 17, 19, 27, 40, and 68, with Mega Ball number 2 — matched the numbers on her ticket.
Lottery officials said Bibal's lucky ticket was worth a cool $522 million. She chose the cash option which netted her $340 million before federal taxes are applied. Unlike most states, California does not impose state tax on lottery winnings.
Bibal took some time before claiming her winnings, hiding the winning ticket in a secret spot while she waited to claim her prize, she told lottery officials.
When asked where that secret place was, Bibal said, "I can't tell you. The secret hiding place is still a secret."
But she now plans to pay off some debt and buy a home with her new fortune.
Bibal's last known address is an apartment complex in Escondido. The property manager said she bought out the remainder of her lease earlier this summer.
Adrian Goro's family has sold lottery tickets at the deli mart for almost 30 years but none of their customers have ever won.
For selling the winning ticket, they get a $1 million prize.
"My mom runs upstairs screaming and she's like, 'We won the lotto!' I thought she meant my dad bought a ticket and we won like half-a-billion dollars. I was going out of my mind," Goro said.
Though a little short of a half a billion dollars, Goro said he and his family still have plenty to be happy about.
The family plans to use the prize money to invest in their store and open a restaurant next door.
Additional information about the drawing, including all prize payout information and drawing video, can be found on USA Mega's Mega Millions drawing detail for June 7, 2019 page.
Mega Millions is one of two largest national lottery games. Tickets for the game are currently offered for sale in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 pm Eastern Time. Tickets cost $2 each.
Players can find lottery retail locations for purchasing tickets by downloading the free Lottery Places app for iOS, Android, or Windows. Lottery Places is the only app on the market that will locate lottery retailers in every state and jurisdiction throughout the United States.
Michigan lottery players can bypass the store completely and buy Mega Millions lottery tickets online. Players outside the USA can play online through a reputable butler service that delivers scanned images of the lottery tickets to verify the ticket purchase and ownership.
The Mega Millions winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.
Mega Millions jackpots start out at $40 million and roll over if there is no jackpot winner. The last jackpot was won in New Hampshire on July 23, with a $168 million jackpot.
The largest jackpot in U.S. history was a $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot on January 13, 2016, when three tickets from California, Florida, and Tennessee split the winnings. The Florida and Tennessee winners claimed their prizes quickly, but the California winner waited about six months to claim their share.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot in history was a $1.5 billion jackpot won in October 2018 by one player in South Carolina, creating the world's first lottery billionaire.
VIDEO: Watch the report
Congrats to the Winner!
Congratulations to Laarni Bibal! She gave a statement to the California State Lottery. She chose not to to the media availability nor the photo celebrity. She lives in a gated community.
Laarni chose the cash option. After all taxes are paid by next April 15, 2020 she will end up with $216,657,000.00 The After-Tax Take-Home ATTH.
Congratulations to Adrian Goro and his family for selling the winning ticket. A cool million dollars before taxes is sweet. $1,000,000.00 I do not know what tax bracket he is in now.
I usually say to the clerks in the store, "Good Luck to the store!"
music. i like how, at times, you're breakin' it down."
aw. this is a nice story. open a restaurant right next door. aw. congrats!
a new home comes easier now for them.and no health care fret,fightin' over that, or bills.
love how she assumed it was dad! awww.
how nice, for her. have much family there in san diego,
who also play at times,not alot(dad still think its rigged IF only 1 or few people win)rather than
many per or most states, let a bunch win. etc.al.,
but,
i usually say good luck to the owner/mgr.,
i i see him or her, because yep,
they win big too!(if they sell the winning ticket etc.al.,)and good luck to you all this evening,and week comin' up.
---
..and people wonder why it took Laarni this long to come forward and claim.
It's one thing to win & say nothing unless forced to, it's quite another to case her former residence to tell people where she lived. What's that got to do with anything? l call
on that.
Congrats to the winner
A very nice tidy sum!
Congrats!
Thats awesome!!!!
I hope she thinks to donate 100 thousand dollars to "NEO"...hopefully
to invent a water powered Motorcycle!!!
And speaking of
But she now plans to pay off some debt and buy a home with her new fortune.
She won almost $1/2 billion and plans to pay off some debt?
Jackpot winners rarely donate large sums of money. They usually end up bored. And are usually happy only when they go back to working. So yeah man what an idea you have, you have given this woman something to do with her time. Another brilliant idea!!! Wow where do you come up with all of this. Oh right tv.
Take the money and disappear! That's way to do it!😄
A few years back we had a jackpot winner from Southern California as well, those folk took their time to collect and hightailed it to parts unknown. They loaded up their sleighs and bide Broadway " Bye Bye."
Unlike some who can't wait to go before the cameras, tell the world who they are, what their plans are. Come on over, meet the spouse, and oh yes-the children. l swear them Robinson's showed up on GMA with their dog!
For good humor.
Congrats to the lucky lady.
Had totally forget about this and that was a good plan she had.
Pay down debt? Heck, pay the bills off. Sounds like having a restaurant is perhaps a passion of theirs. Certainly she's smart enough to get an LLC and an LLP for the restaurant. Our Fresno LP friend is good @ this and can shed more light on what she probably has already done. Come on music*!
LOL!!!