Man finds out he’s a millionaire while buying Valentine’s surprise for wife

Drawing Date: 2/13/2015

February 20, 2015 - Bill Deluca is a man who lives by the old adage, “Happy wife, happy life.” And he knew buying his wife of 41 years flowers on Valentine’s Day would make her happy; so after he bought them, he walked next door and bought his weekly Lottery tickets. He also checked the ones from the night before. He scanned his tickets and said, “I knew I won something, either $3,000, $300,000 or $3 million.” He went straight home and had his wife check the numbers on the Lottery’s website. That’s when he heard the screaming and knew his Mega Millions ticket was the one worth $3,471,009!

Deluca says he will not retire from his construction maintenance job yet, but will use the prize as a pension. He added he will continue to play and hopes to “pad that pension” even more by winning again.

Deluca purchased his ticket at the Ice Bucket III/Chevron located at 307 West Elm Street in Coalinga, Calif. (Fresno County). It correctly matched the numbers 4-74-44-20 and 65, missing only the Mega number 14 in last Friday night’s drawing (Feb. 13).

The retailer is a winner too! It will receive a bonus of a half of one percent, or more than $17,000, just for selling the prize-winning ticket. There is even more good news for them. This retailer selling bonus is separate and is NOT pulled from the winner’s prize amount.