Playful Text From a Colleague Leads to Big Prize Discovery Drawing Date: 11/5/2024 January 28, 2025 - California Lottery player Michael Chavez says he was more interested in the results of the presidential race on November 5, 2024, than the results of the election night Mega Millions® draw, even though he’d bought a ticket for the $303 million jackpot that was up for grabs! “I actually woke up in the middle of the night to check the election results to see who won for president, not Mega Millions,” Chavez told the California Lottery. “I went back to bed without looking at my ticket.” Later that morning, a text from a co-worker piqued his interest. Chavez said he’d forgotten to tell his staff he wouldn’t be at the office, and his co-worker joked that he knew the reason for his absence, sending him a screenshot of the Mega Millions results from the California Lottery website. “He kidded me if the reason I wasn’t at work was because I had won the million. He even jokingly congratulated me,” Chavez said with a laugh. Chavez had, in fact, bought it at Lake Liquor in the tiny town of Woodlake in Tulare County. When he looked, he discovered incredibly that he was the one who matched five of the six winning numbers from that draw and was holding a precious receipt worth $1,214,818! “I could not believe my eyes,” he exclaimed. I’m so excited and extremely grateful. I’ll never forget election night or especially that text.” Chavez said there’s no telling how long he would have waited to check his ticket had it not been for the playful text that tipped him off. Lake Liquor is also a winner, collecting a more than $6,000 bonus for selling Chavez his winning ticket.