Dreamy couple claims Mega Millions ticket

Drawing Date: 11/4/2014

January 21, 2015 - Yes! It’s been more than two months, but someone has finally come forward to claim that Mega Millions ticket sold in Stockton, Calif., worth more than a half million dollars! That’s not the dreamiest part of this story.

Stockton couple, Emaley and Alex Escalera, arrived at the California Lottery’s Sacramento District Office recently with that lucky slip. Their ticket matched five out of six numbers in the Mega Millions drawing on November 4, 2014 to win $597,933!

“We play, but we don’t check them that often,” Alex tried to explain. He added that he gives his wife the tickets and she just stashes them in the nightstand. There the ticket sat, and sat, until Alex eventually took it back to the store and had it scanned. “I didn’t want anyone to touch this ticket,” Alex said. “I was nervous when I was there. I was shaking.”

Somehow Alex made it home. “No, seriously, he was shaking!” Emaley said. “I was checking the numbers one by one.” By then they were both in a fog of disbelief.

No wonder. Alex said he plays three sets of numbers. The first play line represents special dates. The second line contains random numbers. The third line? “I dreamt those one day, and when I woke up I wrote [them] down,” Alex said. He works odd hours as a garbage collector. Sleep is valuable, but this was different. “It was a good dream. The next day I told my wife I’m gonna play those numbers.” According to Alex, he’s been doing that for about a year. Nothing big ever hit, until now.

With their hope for a win now a reality, the Escaleras are carefully planning for the future. “Help our kids with college,” Emaley said. “Pay off everything we owe and that’s it. We want to live in peace.” While they are incredibly thankful to be living the dream, aside from this release, the Escaleras said they would decline additional media inquiries.