It was a pleasant delay in fortune for J. Refugio Gonzalez Almeida from Utah. He took not one, but two trips to Idaho to snag some Mega Millions tickets and hit a whopping $3 million prize. The catch? He had no clue about his win until a month had passed!
Almeida has a habit of driving to Malad, Idaho to buy his lottery tickets. On the weekend of the July 4 Mega Millions draw, where the pot was a staggering $400 million, he made two trips to make sure he had a satisfactory stash of tickets. “When I didn’t hit the jackpot on Friday, I thought, ‘I can’t miss the 4th of July draw’,” Almeida shared. “So, back to Malad, I went the next day to grab tickets from all the games.”
When Almeida finally checked his tickets a month later, he was in for a shock. Among the small wins, there was one that lottery officials told him needed to be claimed directly from the Lottery Commission. The reason? His ticket had matched five numbers, initially bagging $1 million. But with a Megaplier of 3, his prize rocketed to $3 million.
As for the windfall, Almeida aims to make some savvy investments.
“I am taking this right to the bank and depositing it,” he said.