A convenience store in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights sold the single winning ticket in the latest Mega Millions lottery drawing, worth $52 million, the Ohio Lottery said Saturday.
Abe Hamed, the manager of Shaker Quality Foods, said he has no idea who might have purchased the winning ticket. He said lottery officials phoned the store Saturday to inform them. Since then, excitement has built up as people have found out.
"This phone will not stop ringing. Everybody's so happy. I just hope it's someone who needed it," he said. "It's about time somebody hit and you know they hit close to home."
Ohio Lottery spokeswoman Mardele Cohen said the owner of the store will receive $52,000 for selling the winning ticket.
Hamed said he plans to reinvest the $52,000 that he got for the winning ticket into the store, but he's particularly excited about winning because it gives him bragging rights.
"It's not the money, it's the prestige and it's the bragging rights," Hamed said. "Now I can say I sold the Mega Millions winner!"
This isn't the first time the store has won.
"We sold Buckeye Five," he said. "We sold four winners for $100,000 each, and the odds of us doing something else looks pretty good."
The winning numbers from Friday night's drawing were: 12, 17, 34, 37 and 39. The Mega Ball number was 34.
It's the third time a jackpot winner was sold in Ohio. Most recently, a Dayton man claimed a $21 million jackpot in March.
Ohio waited more than 1½ years after joining the multistate lottery before it sold its first winning ticket in the Dec. 30 drawing.
The $162 million jackpot was awarded to Rebecca Jemison of South Euclid after a Cleveland woman claimed she lost the winning ticket and sued to block the payment to Jemison.
Elecia Battle later dropped her lawsuit and tearfully apologized for making the claim. She was sentenced to a year of probation and was fined after being convicted of filing a false police report claiming she bought and lost the winning ticket.
I dont know anybody in that side of town
I've called all of my connections too. No one talking! Can't blame them either.
I don't know ANYBODY in Ohio.