Virginia friends split $1 million prize

Drawing Date: 9/26/2017

September 29, 2017 - It’s been about five years since David Budnick of Henrico and Roger Wingo of Amelia began playing Mega Millions together.

“I told him when we started playing that we’ll win $1 million,” Budnick said.

He was absolutely right.

The ticket he bought for the September 26 Mega Millions drawing matched the first five winning numbers to win the game’s million-dollar second prize.

Budnick, an exercise therapist, bought the ticket at Hari Sai Exxon, located at 10400 Ridgefield Parkway in Henrico, Va. He used Easy Pick and allowed the computer to randomly select the numbers on the ticket.

When he discovered the ticket matched all the winning numbers except the Mega Ball number, he phoned Wingo, a mail carrier, in the middle of the night.

“I thought he’d rolled over on his phone,” Wingo said. So Budnick sent him a photo of the ticket as proof.

“It was a good night,” Budnick summed up.

Those winning numbers were 1-10-57-66-75, and Mega Ball number was 4. Their ticket was the only one in Virginia to match the first five numbers in that drawing and one of just two nationwide.

The store received a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.