Herndon, Va., small business owner wins $3 million playing Mega Millions

Drawing Date: 3/14/2014

March 24, 2014 - Glinda Salgado sells a lot of Virginia Lottery at the store her family owns: Elden Market & Deli at 1141 Elden Street #103 in Herndon. She’s seen a lot of her customers win prizes of various sizes. So when she heard that a Mega Millions ticket sold at her store had won $3 million, she was really excited.

“Oh good, somebody won. Yay!” she recalled thinking when she heard the news.

What she didn’t realize is that she was the person who bought that winning ticket. Her ticket matched the first five numbers in the March 14 Mega Millions drawing.

“I didn’t think it was me, so I didn’t check my ticket,” she said.

The winning numbers were 7-20-40-54-69 and the Mega Ball number was 12.  The only number she didn’t match was the Mega Ball number. Normally, that would win $1 million. But Ms. Salgado spent an extra $1 for the Megaplier when she bought the ticket, which increased the prize to $3 million.

On March 24, Virginia Lottery Executive Director Paula Otto stopped by the store to present her with $3 million prize, and the store with a $10,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling the winning ticket.

Some people might say the store is located in a lucky area. It’s just a block or two away from the Giant Food where a $107 million Mega Millions jackpot was won in 2011.

Ms. Salgado said she selected four of the numbers on her ticket using numbers that are important to her, and the remaining two numbers at random.  Had she matched that final number, she would have won a Mega Millions jackpot estimated at $353 million. The odds of matching the first five numbers in Mega Millions are 1 in 18,492,204.

Ms. Salgado, who lives in Chantilly, said she has no immediate plans for her winnings.