EPHRATA, Wash. — The Washington Lottery says the holder of one of two winning tickets in the $380 million Mega Millions lottery is a retired man who plans to bring his family to claim his winnings today.
The holder of the other winning ticket, sold in Post Falls, Idaho, has yet to surface. Each ticket is worth $190 million.
The two small towns are just 125 miles apart in the snow-covered Pacific Northwest.
Scott Kinney of the Washington Lottery says the Washington ticket was sold in a Safeway supermarket in Ephrata.
The prospect of winning the second-biggest jackpot in history drew huge interest across the country as thousands of people lined up to buy tickets in the 41 states — including Colorado — and Washington, D.C., where the lottery is held.
A day after the drawing, all eyes were on a region where most of the nation’s frozen french fries are produced, and on the similarity between the winning digits and the ones used by a character on the ABC show “Lost.” The winning numbers were 4, 8, 15, 25 and 47, with the Mega ball number of 42. Four of the six winning numbers matched numbers that were prominently featured throughout the popular series: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.
“Lost” — and found wealth
Video producer Ryan Jones of New York said he and a co-worker pooled their money to buy 10 tickets together, but he returned to the grocery store to buy an 11th entry just to play the “Lost” numbers.
Mega Millions said 25,587 tickets matched three of the winning numbers, plus the bonus number — so anyone who played the “Lost” numbers won $150 per ticket.
“Lost” character Hugo “Hurley” Reyes became a multimillionaire when he won using numbers repeated by a former Navy seaman who became a patient in a mental institution. Hurley was also a patient. But his win came with a series of spectacular misfortunes — his grandfather died after a heart attack at Hurley’s news conference and the house he bought for his mom caught fire. Hurley even believed he caused a plane crash that left him and fellow passengers stranded on an island as the saga began. He blamed it on the numbers.
