LOS ANGELES — A TV newsroom employee found out while working the graveyard shift that she and her husband have the Mega Millions ticket worth $266 million, her boss at KNBC said today.
Assignment manager David Reese said the newly minted millionaire called him at 2:30 a.m. to share her good news. Then she finished her shift and asked her colleagues to keep her name a secret until she’s ready to step forward, Reese said.
Her good fortune led KNBC’s evening newscast. Reporter Cary Berglund said the woman, whom he called “Millionairess X,” heard that the winning ticket was purchased in Pico Rivera, called her husband and learned the news.
“She started crying,” colleague Nicole Stevenson told the station. “She asked him to repeat it. She thought he was kidding, thought he was messing with her.”
She hasn’t claimed her ticket yet, but Reese said he saw a photocopy of the ticket showing all six numbers drawn in Tuesday’s multistate game — 9, 21, 31, 36 and 43 with 8 as the Mega number.
The winner has a year to turn in the ticket, then 60 days to tell lottery officials how he or she wants the money.
It can be paid in 26 equal payments of $10.2 million or in a lump sum of about $165 million, minus federal taxes, said lottery spokeswoman Cathy Doyle Johnston.
The woman has worked a freelancer for KNBC for about four years, and her husband was laid off two weeks ago, Reese said.
“She’s usually the most pleasant and nice person to work with even when all hell is breaking loose,” he said. “It renews your faith in the universe that something like this can happen to someone who really deserves it.”
On Tuesday night, the woman had wanted to order dinner from Kentucky Fried Chicken, but her husband insisted on going to a barbecue joint where he bought the tickets, Berglund said.
Because the winning ticket was sold at L &L Hawaiian BBQ in Pico Rivera, owner Danny He and his family will get $1 million, the cap on lottery bonuses in California, Johnston said.
He said the money will go toward his son’s college education and to pay some debt.
Reese said the winner told him she plans on coming to work Thursday.
“She said she loves work and she doesn’t want this to change her life that way. She says she needs the routine,” he said.
The $266 million jackpot was the eighth-largest in the history of the game, which began in 2002 and is now played in 38 states and the District of Columbia.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever was $390 million on March 6, 2007, shared by winners in Dalton, Ga., and New Jersey.
Lottery officials said the odds of matching all six numbers drawn in Tuesday’s multistate game is 1 in 175,711,536.
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