A UTAH man who decided to take two trips to Idaho to buy Mega Millions tickets ended up win¬ning $3 million — but he didn’t know until a month later.
J. Refugio Gonzalez Almeida told Idaho Lottery officials he regularly drives to Malad to buy lottery tick¬ets, and he ended up making two trips in one weekend to make sure he had enough tickets for the July 4 Mega Millions drawing, when the jackpot was about $400 million.
“Playing the Lottery is my hobby. When I didn’t win the jackpot on that Friday, I thought ‘I need a ticket for the 4th of July,’ so I drove back to Malad on Saturday,” he said. “I bought all the games, including Mega Millions. I had a lot of tickets.”
Almeida said he didn’t return to Malad to check his tickets until a month later.
“I had $2, $8, not a lot. And then they scanned this one and told me I had to take it to the Lottery Com¬mission. So here I am,” Almeida told officials.
Almeida’s ticket matched the first-five numbers, earning a $1 million prize that was transformed into $3 million when the Megaplier number for the drawing came up three. The winner said he plans to invest his prize money.
“I am taking this right to the bank and depositing it,” he said.
Source: upi.com