‘Hey, someone won,’ lottery player says. Then he checks his Mega Millions ticket
A Virginia man learned somebody won a life-changing lottery prize — but didn’t realize he held the lucky ticket.
“Hey, someone won at that little bodega,” John Willis said.
“Well, check your ticket,” his girlfriend responded.
That’s when Willis discovered he was the person who won $2 million in a recent Mega Millions drawing, the Virginia Lottery wrote June 27 in a news release.
Willis bought his winning ticket at Chester Food Mart, a convenience store he often visits in Chester. He selected the Easy Pick option, meaning a lottery machine chose his ticket numbers at random.
Then on April 29, the ticket matched all but one number picked in the drawing. No one hit the jackpot, and Willis won the largest Mega Millions prize in the nation that night, according to the game’s website and previous McClatchy News reporting.
Willis lives in Chester, a roughly 15-mile drive south from downtown Richmond. Lottery officials didn’t say how much he kept after taxes.
What to know about Mega Millions
To score the jackpot in the Mega Millions, a player must match all five white balls and the gold Mega Ball. The odds of scoring a jackpot prize are 1 in 290,472,336.
Tickets cost $5 and can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times vary by state.
Drawings are held Tuesdays and Fridays at 11 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This story was originally published July 2, 2025 at 11:38 AM with the headline "‘Hey, someone won,’ lottery player says. Then he checks his Mega Millions ticket."
