A Southern California man realized he won $1.2 million in the California Lottery Mega Millions after a coworker jokingly texted him about winning.
Michael Chavez said it all happened on election night, Nov. 5, which was also the drawing for the $303 million jackpot.
“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.
Chavez said he went back to sleep, but later that morning he remembered he forgot to tell his coworkers that he would not be at work. He then received a funny but life-changing text from his coworker.
“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.
The coworker had even sent him a screenshot of the Mega Millions results.
After taking a close look at the screenshot, Chavez realized he did win the lottery, matching five of the six numbers, a total of $1,214,818.
“I could not believe my eyes,” said Chavez.
The Mega Millions ticket was purchased at Lake Liquor in Lakewood, who will also get $6,000 for selling the winning ticket. The winning numbers for that drawing were 2-24-25-52-58 and the Mega number was 9.
Chavez said had it not been for that text, he doesn’t know when he would have checked the ticket.
“I’ll never forget election night or especially that text,” he said.
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