Now we wait for the second winner, who bought their winning ticket at the same store
By Kate Northrop
ENCINO, Calif. — One of the lottery winners splitting a $395 million Mega Millions who bought their winning ticket at the same store as the other jackpot winner has come forward to claim their share of the prize.
The California Lottery announced on Tuesday that one of the winners of the $395 million Mega Millions jackpot has claimed their prize, which will be split with another jackpot-winning ticket bought at the same exact retailer in separate transactions.
The first winner to come forward is F. Lahijani, who bought his ticket at the Chevron gas station at 18081 Ventura Boulevard. That retailer receives a record-breaking bonus check for selling not one, but two jackpot-winning tickets in the Mega Millions drawing on Dec. 8, 2023.
Lottery retailers who sell a ticket that wins $1 million or more earn a bonus of .5% of the prize value up to a million dollars. This applies to separate winning tickets, so a bonus commission of $987,500 for each jackpot-winning ticket came out to a grand total of $1.9 million.
It is the highest bonus ever received by a single retailer in California Lottery history.
"This was only made possible by the fact that the same store sold two jackpot-winning tickets over two separate transactions," Lottery Deputy Director of Public Affairs and Communications Carolyn Becker said in a press release. "This has never happened before, and we want to congratulate the owners of this particular retail location!"
Lahijani claimed a $197.5 million share of the jackpot, although the Lottery did not say in their announcement whether he opted for the annuity or cash option.
Both Lahijani and the Chevron gas station owners declined to comment publicly and told the Lottery they were not interested in speaking to the media.
The Lottery did not say in their announcement whether Lahijani's winning ticket was a Quick Pick or purchased using pre-selected numbers.
The winning numbers for the Mega Millions drawing on Dec. 8, 2023 were 21, 26, 53, 66, and 70, with Mega Ball number 13. The Megaplier was 3.
Whoever has the second winning ticket has one year from the date of the drawing to come forward to collect their $197.5 million share of the jackpot.
The next Mega Millions drawing will take place on Fri., June 28 at 11:00 pm EST for a jackpot of $116 million. The Powerball jackpot is currently sitting at $95 million for the drawing on Wed., June 26 at 10:59 pm EST.
Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 45 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.
The Mega Millions winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.
Wow! Great story!
Congratulations to the winners!
Good luck!
Congratulations to both winners.
SHENANIGANS!!!
The best explanation I can think of is that someone played their numbers and left the slip behind and someone else played the same numbers as well and it just happened to be a winner. I say that because I have done just that lol. I always play quick pick and every now and then when I walk into a lottery machine I'd find a completed slip someone just played and left behind. I see it as a sign and just use the same slip to play the toss it away. It doesn't happen often but it did happen in the past, maybe three or four times. Maybe one day it too will be a jackpot winner.
Unless both tickets were quick picks. And if so extremely incredible two winners from the same location. Considering how many terminals there are!
l will tell you exactly what l think most likely the same person bought both tickets and he is going to use one ticket for Lump sum and the other ticket for Annuity 😊🙏 Congratulations 🎈🎊 twice
What a genius idea.
I've had a clerk accidentally run my payslip twice. I have played the same numbers twice hoping to get two small jackpots if nothing else. I have also purchased two separate payslips to hopefully share with a friend if I won. So anything is possible. I just wish Ca would be more transparent on whether they were quick pics or not.
l can Bet my life that it is not a quick pick except one condition .And that condition is if the first one was a quick pick and he manually made a duplicate of that quick pick then that is possible because he created the opportunity but however it is impossible for both tickets to be quick pick from the same store . The only way a quick pick could even be a possibility is if he first bought the quick pick then manually duplicated it. But if you ask me what happened l will tell you that this guy is a regular player that played his tickets one day and forgot about it and went back to buy more alcohol and played his tickets again by mistake and fortunately got lucky 🍀 🍀 😁🙏😜🎊🎊