LONG BEACH, Calif. — The multimillion-dollar man has been found.
California Lottery officials Tuesday announced the name of a man, believed to be a Long Beach resident, who has won the $134 million Mega Millions jackpot.
The winner has been identified as John Dalkos. Officials said Dalkos showed up at the Santa Ana District office on Monday afternoon to claim his massive prize. Dalkos declined to be interviewed, they said.
His ticket — with winning numbers 11, 34, 44, 31, 52 and Mega Ball number 32 — was sold at Country Donuts at the corner of East Anaheim Street and Obispo Avenue.
Country Donuts owner Kevin Thai gets a bonus of $670,000, roughly half of one percent of the total, because his store sold the winning ticket.
Thai said Dalkos, who is in his 70s, is a regular customer at Country Donuts.
He said a confused-looking Dalkos came into the store on Monday with the winning lottery ticket and tried to use one of the Mega Millions scanners to determine if the ticket was a winner. The scanner, however, came up blank, Thai said.
Dalkos was ready to throw the ticket away when another customer stopped him, he said. Thai said he gave Dalkos the contact information for the district office in Santa Ana.
Records show that a John Dalkos lives in Long Beach just a few blocks from Country Donuts. No one answered the door Tuesday when local media visited the home.
Officials said Dalkos has 60 days to decide if he wants the annuity or cash option. The cash option for the ticket is worth $82.9 million.Friday's jackpot was originally announced as $133 million, but strong ticket sales pushed the prize up to $134 million, officials said.
Including Dalkos' ticket, a total of 12 Mega Millions jackpots have been won in California, including a $315 million jackpot in 2005, the largest in California history. Friday's win is the third-largest Mega Millions win for California since the state joined the game in 2005.
Mega Millions, the country's largest lottery, includes 35 states and the District of Columbia. The odds of winning a jackpot are 1 in 176 million. Players pick five numbers from 1 to 56 plus a Mega number from 1 to 46.
Draw times are Tuesdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.
Thank God for the honest people in this article that helped this man.
I just hope he can handle the crooks that will be seeking him out now.
Congratulations to him!
Congrats to the winner but he has claimed all wrong. First of all he's elderly which I can see it now that he's going to be a target for the snakes, his name has been released, they have already basically gave his location of residence away, and he claimed early while the hype of this particular winning is still active. The only thing he did do right was to not give a conference but that only helped by not giving a face to a name, which will not help much with so much other info being released. I only hope he moves away asap to a non disclosed location. My prayers are out to him that he doesn't become another curse of the lottery.
Unfortunately Mr. Jackpot there is a face to the name. Go to google and type in long beach mega milion lotter winner. The KTLA news station was at the donut store interviewing the owners when the winner showed up to check is ticket. I hope this guy hires some people to help him out.
This gentleman will more than likely do good with his winnings!! Too bad the stinking press cannot take ... NO ... for an answer!!
I'm actually glad for the guy that the press happened to be there cause i got the feeling from watching the news vid that the ladies behind the counter checking his ticket "may" have tried to tell him it was no winner & kept it ! ? I'm surprised the States let the Lotto give the store that sold the ticket so much money ! You'd think they'd say "heres a hundred bucs (for doing nothing basically)" and keep the rest for themselve's ! (haha) ..and wow- i can't believe the state of CA doesn't collect sales taxes from the lottery ??....... no wonder the state is so broke ?!?!
So- why does the Mega give you a bigger percentage of the money than the Powerball does? It seems like the PB payout is less than half the advertised total right off the top THEN you have to pay taxes !
It appears you can figure (if you take the cash option) that you'll end up with about one third of the jackpot after taxes -And although yes that would be enough for me, it sure seems obscene that "they" take two-thirds ofYOUR prize doesn't it ? if thats the case we should only have to pay 33 cents to buy the ticket ! (haha)....
I wish Mr. Dalkos the best ..... and yes the crooks will come out of the woodwork after seeing in the media that he can be easily confused !
I am happy that it is one person .... because that drives the people that "think" that they need to guide us thru life CRAZY!
Now I just need to be the ONLY winner tonite in the Powerball drawing .... this does not mean that the wealth will not be spread .... it will just be spread the way that I want it to be spread ... such as a High School Band in Texas that I found on the internet. Very large band in a semi-rural area that is not only large, but very accomplished ! Winning by myself would give me the ability to make an enormous impact in the lives of these students!
And I could still get that house at the lake !
it amazes me how people think there is a curse with the lottery. dothe few negatives realize that there is a huge amount of peoplethat live positive and do great things with the money?
d poly, are you going to send them to bandcamp? lol we usedto have a heck of a band at Newton, IL when i was a teen. 98 percenthas to do with the teachers motivation. after she retired, the bandbecame "so-so."
Now that is scary, if he threw that ticket away, he would kicking himself the rest of his life!!!!!
A couple of observations:
A quick pick
It appears that they interviewed his bank.....which would make me very nervous if I were doing any banking business.
It said he lives a few blocks from the Donut shop where the winning ticket was purchased, it is possible that he walks there...I would worry about being mugged.One could do a quick online telephone directory search, look up his name, number and address and bug the%^%&^^ out of him.
AS said before, he didn't lay low until after the hoopla died down. Bad move. Get the ducks in a row first.
Even though at times he was walking away from the interiewer, it also appeared like he was wondering around too much in public. People will know his face.....just as bad as having your name plastered all over.
He showed the ticket to strangers, get that thing out of sight until it is time to claim. The news can't validate the ticket so why show it to them? Make copies for my records.
My state does requires that your name , city and winnings be public.....This is why I would take precautions. I would set up a couple of anonymous consultations with a few attorneys telling them that I am coming into a large sum of money, due to a settlement, I have debts I want to pay off and it may be possible to retire early I want to take are of a few charities and family members....how do I do this? how do I protect the money from "poachers." How do I stay as private as possible? This is basically interviewing for the right attorney. Once I find the one I am comfortable with, set up the retainer and spill my guts on the source of the money and who I want to protect and take care of.
Let family know that I am travelling on business, let my employer know that I would like to take a vacation or I need to reluctantly resign due to personal reasons beyond my control. Change my daily habits, pay cash for anything for a while.
You will still have people coming out of the woodwork to bother you, but precautions would decrease this and saying no would help too....
Congrats to Mr. Dalkos on his win!
I hope that Mr. Dalkos gets the chance (and the time) to enjoy his winnings in whatever way he chooses, hopfully he has some kids or close friends that will let him stay at there place for a while or he finds a nice suite somewhere( San Diego sounds nice this time of year
) till this all blows over.
he almost threw the ticket away??!!! Jeez man... I dont understand for the life of me why people rely on those stupid ticket scanners. It didnt even alert him that he won!! WTF??! Do people not have internet access or somthing or cant spend 50 cents on a newspaper to check the numbers?!
i did the google thing to find the video
, my god he looks real old, like he can die any day old
whatever traval dreams or whatever he wanted to do in hes long life, am sure they come true now
party it up and go out with a bang , so good for him
ofc this guy is taking the cash, he be nuts to take 25+ years of checks at hes age
unreal the media was their, the guy seemed super confused at first, or was playing dumb , maybe a bit of both
ether way, media got hes number , cat out of the bag, he can't hide from the public now
he can turn down the media interviews, but they have hes scent and they be all over him like bloodhounds on a fox hunt
He's in his 70's JONNIE. You start relying on other people a little more at that age and probably trusting them a little too much.
And he's from an era when there was a little more common decency and integrity then there is now.
rdgrnr-
You're right. Forgot how old he was. Congrats to him, even though he won, he almost lost!
I need a win bad !
but good for anyone that wins tonight !
Congrats to mr. dalkos ...... if i was his age i wouldnt lay low either i would get my money a.s.a.p..... no need to wait to collect his money because he might loose or forget that he even bought a ticket.... plus who knows he's been on this earth a long time..... now that he is about to get his winnings it's time to live everyday happy and like its your last......
I agree, those scanners are terrible--sometimes they don't work at all---thank god someone was nice enough to tell him to verify it at the SA Lottery Office to make it official...Glad he won and decided to stay out of the limelight...I mean at least we know his name and that he is the "only" winner--I'm just wondering what he will decide to do; take the cash payout--considering he is 70 years old...he had a lot to think about...
I am surprised the scanner didn't work. I have never had any problems with them. Perhaps the programming doesn't work when it actually finds a Mega Millions jackpot winner. Even though I do rely on them, I also look on the calottery website to see if anyone won the jackpot. If so, if it says my city, I would double-check my ticket anyway.
"It appears that they interviewed his bank.....which would make me very nervous if I were doing any banking business."
How do you know they interviewed his bank?
"My state does requires that your name , city and winnings be public"
Which state do you live in? Is it California?
Well I wouldn't worry about crooks knowing his location - that area of Long Beach between 7th street and Pacific Coast Highway is known as a crappy neighbourhood so he will most certainly relocate. The only stupid thing that guy did is releasing his identity - California allows anounymous claim but with money like that he can afford a privacy - even change his last name if nesessary.
He didn't reveal his Identity: Other people did!
He didn't know he held the Winning Ticket until he used the Scanner!
Other people were there!
They revealed his Identity!
As I said in my post, it "appears" that they interviewed his bank..on the KTLA news video. About 1 minute 54 sec into the video, they interview the bank employees across the street from the donut shop, who say it couldn't have happened to a nicer man... If he wasn't a customer, how would they know how nice he was? Since he frequents the donut shop near his home, it may be that he does his banking across the street. I don't know why the news would go across the street to interview the bank, they didn't sell the lottery ticket. I just found it odd that they would casually go into a bank and interview employees about the lottery winner. In the video he leaves the donut shop then comes back, could he have gone to the bank and they saw him go in?... Even at my bank, I lay real low.
It was just a casual observation.
I live in PA. If I did win and claim it in a trust, sadly, PA still will name the beneficiaries of the trust. In 2004, the WLT Trust claimed the Powerball winnings, but the beneficiaries were named
So a man, who lottery officials claim is named John Dalkos, wins $134 million. He makes his claim and doesn't want any press, as evidenced by his declining to be interviewed, and now someone in the media is searching databases to find his address and show up at his door? This is EXACTLY why winners should be able to claim their prize annonymously!!!! When I win my millions, I'm going to hide so fast even my son can't find me.... until I'm ready that is!!!
Actually, he walked into the store where he bought the ticket and the media was already there since the winning ticket was sold there. This was before he actually had to go to Santa Ana to claim at lottery offices.
He was on tv kind of wandering around and they were following him. He almost threw out the ticket.
I do sincerely hope for the best for this guy, but he's off to a bad start.
I'd even go as far as to grow a beard and get some disguise before going to claim. I hope someone who genuinely cares reels him in.
I don't think it is unreasonable for a person to legally change their name after winning a jackpot.
Yeah! You could change Your Name to Jackpot Winner!
Are we a whimsical bunch of registered blog members or what?
Congratulations to this BIG, BIG jackpot winning sole ticket holder!!!
I need to win on Saturday .... my son is going to perform at an amusement park on the other side of the country for the summer and we can't go see him.
Disability just doesn't go too far ... and the house is falling down too ... but good luck to all.
God bless Mr. Dalkos. I really hope for his sake he has some younger family members who can protect him and the ticket until it is redeemed.
Now, why is it that almost all jackpot winners buy quickpicks and wander back into the store they bought it from to check to see if it was a winner?
I think that the news station should have held that footage until he redeemed the ticket. Right now he is a sitting duck.
Not really. It depends on whether he had signed his ticket because if he had then the lottery
people would have not let just anybody cash it. And even if he had not, he would still have
been able to succesfully claim the winnings because most stores have cameras and the lottery
people can easily verify that he was the man who bought the winning ticket.
There was a story Bob Sehested of Camarillo, California (google him) bought 50 tickets when he turned 50 and hit for $500,000. I forget the middle part of the story but it involved a dishonest store clerk. The lottery commission used the cameras to find him and give him his jackpot.
I agree...that news station should be ashamed of itself! It's one thing to get a story...it's another to take advantage and pressure and elderly man for it.
Given what passes for "news" these days, you won't be seeing any signs of shame for a while.
I hope you win dpoly1 and are able to go see your son.
Good luck to you.
Calif. man is great (134M)$$$$$$$$$$
wow t'was dis a Quick Pick??????????
Mega Millions Lottery>>>>>WINNER$$$
R>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>"GREAT"!!!!!
"CHANGE" >>>>real >>>>"CHANGE"
I went to google and typed in mega million loterry winner, I saw the video. I pray he has some children or loved ones who will protect him and be good for him. He looks like someone people will be able to take advantage of. He needs to move asap. Does California require names to be released? I hate that mess, they only care about publicity not your life. '
God Speed for Mr dALKOS. I WOULD LOVE TO BE WRONG!
Thank you so much ... I am already rich, because I have a great family ... I just need some extra money.
Lost my job in December '01 and became disabled in '08.
It would also be nice to help some other people that I know ...
But, I just take one day at a time ... best wishes to the gentleman from CA ... I hope that the predators don't get to him !
I already have three fine financial advisors !
Congratulation to him. However, I still don't understand why winners are required to have their names released. There should be a law against it, please write to your Governor.
I will if I ever become one of the twelve or so yearly MM jackpot winners.
Sorry, but anonymity among most states is just not going to happen. The states want to show that "real" people win the lottery. By printing peoples name and showing their photos and press conferences, they are showing that the average joe does win the lottery and that the lotteries are on the up and up.