A Manassas, Virginia, man was one number away from hitting a Mega Millions jackpot worth some $131 million; instead he had to settle for $1 million. Not too shabby.
Malcolm Meredith purchased the ticket at a Harris Teeter, and he let the computer select the numbers on his ticket.
He showed someone his Mega Millions ticket from the May 20 drawing, and he was informed that he didn’t have the winning ticket.
He decided to keep his ticket and checked it again a few weeks later. It was then that Meredith found out the ticket was a winner, but he didn’t how much he won.
So, he took it to the Virginia Lottery’s Northern Virginia Customer Service Center in Woodbridge. That’s where Meredith found out he won $1 million.
“I was hoping and praying!” he told lottery officials.
According to the Virginia Lottery, the winning numbers were 33-40-59-60-69, and the Mega Ball number was 22.
His ticket matched the first five numbers but missed the one Mega Ball number. If he got all six numbers, Meredith would’ve won the jackpot.
He had the only ticket to match the first five numbers from the drawing, according to the Virginia Lottery.
As a result of Meredith’s victory, Harris Teeter got a $10,000 bonus from the lottery for selling the winning ticket.