Calif. man claims $134M Mega Millions lottery jackpot

Mar 10, 2010, 7:54 am (43 comments)

Mega Millions

LONG BEACH, Calif. — The multimillion-dollar man has been found.

California Lottery officials Tuesday announced the name of a man, believed to be a Long Beach resident, who has won the $134 million Mega Millions jackpot.

The winner has been identified as John Dalkos. Officials said Dalkos showed up at the Santa Ana District office on Monday afternoon to claim his massive prize. Dalkos declined to be interviewed, they said.

His ticket — with winning numbers 11, 34, 44, 31, 52 and Mega Ball number 32 — was sold at Country Donuts at the corner of East Anaheim Street and Obispo Avenue.

Country Donuts owner Kevin Thai gets a bonus of $670,000, roughly half of one percent of the total, because his store sold the winning ticket.

Thai said Dalkos, who is in his 70s, is a regular customer at Country Donuts.

He said a confused-looking Dalkos came into the store on Monday with the winning lottery ticket and tried to use one of the Mega Millions scanners to determine if the ticket was a winner. The scanner, however, came up blank, Thai said.

Dalkos was ready to throw the ticket away when another customer stopped him, he said. Thai said he gave Dalkos the contact information for the district office in Santa Ana.

Records show that a John Dalkos lives in Long Beach just a few blocks from Country Donuts. No one answered the door Tuesday when local media visited the home.

Officials said Dalkos has 60 days to decide if he wants the annuity or cash option. The cash option for the ticket is worth $82.9 million.Friday's jackpot was originally announced as $133 million, but strong ticket sales pushed the prize up to $134 million, officials said.

Including Dalkos' ticket, a total of 12 Mega Millions jackpots have been won in California, including a $315 million jackpot in 2005, the largest in California history. Friday's win is the third-largest Mega Millions win for California since the state joined the game in 2005.

Mega Millions, the country's largest lottery, includes 35 states and the District of Columbia. The odds of winning a jackpot are 1 in 176 million. Players pick five numbers from 1 to 56 plus a Mega number from 1 to 46.

Draw times are Tuesdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.

Contra Costa Times

Comments

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Thank God for the honest people in this article that helped this man.

I just hope he can handle the crooks that will be seeking him out now.

konane's avatarkonane

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Mar 10, 2010

Thank God for the honest people in this article that helped this man.

I just hope he can handle the crooks that will be seeking him out now.

I Agree!   

 

Congratulations to him!

MrJackpot

Congrats to the winner but he has claimed all wrong. First of all he's elderly which I can see it now that he's going to be a target for the snakes, his name has been released, they have already basically gave his location of residence away, and he claimed early while the hype of this particular winning is still active. The only thing he did do right was to not give a conference but that only helped by not giving a face to a name, which will not help much with so much other info being released. I only hope he moves away asap to a non disclosed location. My prayers are out to him that he doesn't become another curse of the lottery.

CowboysFan's avatarCowboysFan

Unfortunately Mr. Jackpot there is a face to the name. Go to google and type in long beach mega milion lotter winner. The KTLA news station was at the donut store  interviewing the owners when the winner showed up to check is ticket.  I hope this guy hires some people to help him out.

billyloco

      This gentleman will more than likely do good with his winnings!! Too bad the stinking press cannot take ... NO ...  for an answer!!

Bash<--(hitting the press....LOL!!!)

Starr920

Quote: Originally posted by MrJackpot on Mar 10, 2010

Congrats to the winner but he has claimed all wrong. First of all he's elderly which I can see it now that he's going to be a target for the snakes, his name has been released, they have already basically gave his location of residence away, and he claimed early while the hype of this particular winning is still active. The only thing he did do right was to not give a conference but that only helped by not giving a face to a name, which will not help much with so much other info being released. I only hope he moves away asap to a non disclosed location. My prayers are out to him that he doesn't become another curse of the lottery.

I Agree! I watched the news report and I really pray that he has the wisdom to handle his new found wealth.  The fact that he was ready to throw the ticket away because the scanner didn't read the ticket is a little scary.  I wish him well but he's off to a very rocky start.No No

michimac

I'm actually glad for the guy that the press happened to be there cause i got the feeling from watching the news vid that the ladies behind the counter checking his ticket "may" have tried to tell him it was no winner & kept it ! ? I'm surprised the States let the Lotto give the store that sold the ticket so much money ! You'd think they'd say "heres a hundred bucs (for doing nothing basically)" and keep the rest for themselve's ! (haha) ..and wow- i can't believe the state of CA doesn't collect sales taxes from the lottery ??....... no wonder the state is so broke ?!?!

So- why does the Mega give you a bigger percentage of the money than the Powerball does? It seems like the PB payout is less than half the advertised total right off the top THEN you have to pay taxes !

It appears you can figure (if you take the cash option) that you'll end up with about one third of the jackpot after taxes -And although yes that would be enough for me, it sure seems obscene that "they" take two-thirds ofYOUR prize doesn't it ?  if thats the case we should only have to pay 33 cents to buy the ticket ! (haha)....Lurking

dpoly1's avatardpoly1

I wish Mr. Dalkos the best ..... and yes the crooks will come out of the woodwork after seeing in the media that he can be easily confused !

I am happy that it is one person .... because that drives the people that "think" that they need to guide us thru life CRAZY! Dunk

Now I just need to be the ONLY winner tonite in the Powerball drawing .... this does not mean that the wealth will not be spread .... it will just be spread the way that I want it to be spread ... such as a High School Band in Texas that I found on the internet. Very large band in a semi-rural area that is not only large, but very accomplished ! Winning by myself would give me the ability to make an enormous impact in the lives of these students!

DrumDance

And I could still get that house at the lake ! Cool  Big Grin

cosmotravis's avatarcosmotravis

it amazes me how people think there is a curse with the lottery.  dothe few negatives  realize that there is a huge amount of peoplethat live positive and do great things with the money?

d poly, are you going to send them to bandcamp?   lol    we usedto have a heck of a band at Newton, IL when i was a teen.   98 percenthas to do with the teachers motivation.  after she retired, the bandbecame "so-so."

 


coolmoney

Quote: Originally posted by Starr920 on Mar 10, 2010

I Agree! I watched the news report and I really pray that he has the wisdom to handle his new found wealth.  The fact that he was ready to throw the ticket away because the scanner didn't read the ticket is a little scary.  I wish him well but he's off to a very rocky start.No No

Now that is scary, if he threw that ticket away, he would kicking himself the rest of his life!!!!!

drhymes74

A couple of observations:

A quick pick

It appears that they interviewed his bank.....which would make me very nervous if I were doing any banking business.

It said he lives a few blocks from the Donut shop where the winning ticket was purchased, it is possible that he walks there...I would worry about being mugged.One could do a quick online telephone directory search, look up his name, number and address and bug the%^%&^^ out of him.

AS said before, he didn't lay low until after the hoopla died down. Bad move. Get the ducks in a row first.

Even though at times he was walking away from the interiewer, it also appeared like he was wondering around too much in public. People will know his face.....just as bad as having your name plastered all over.

He showed the ticket to strangers, get that thing out of sight until it is time to claim. The news can't validate the ticket so why show it to them?  Make copies for my records.


My state does requires that your name , city and winnings be public.....This is why I would take precautions.  I would set up a couple of anonymous consultations with a few attorneys telling them that I am coming into a large sum of money, due to a settlement, I have debts I want to pay off and it may be possible to retire early I want to take are of a few charities and family members....how do I do this? how do I protect the money from "poachers."  How do I stay as private as possible?  This is basically interviewing for the right attorney. Once I find the one I am comfortable with, set up the retainer and spill my guts on the source of the money and who I want to protect and take care of.

Let family know that I am travelling on business, let my employer know that  I would like to take a vacation or I need to reluctantly resign due to personal reasons beyond my control. Change my daily habits, pay cash for anything for a while.

You will still have people coming out of the woodwork to bother you, but precautions would decrease this and saying no would help too....

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

Congrats to Mr. Dalkos on his win! Cheers

sully16's avatarsully16

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Mar 10, 2010

Thank God for the honest people in this article that helped this man.

I just hope he can handle the crooks that will be seeking him out now.

I Agree!

Taipanez's avatarTaipanez

I hope that Mr. Dalkos gets the chance (and the time) to enjoy his winnings in whatever way he chooses, hopfully he has some kids or close friends that will let him stay at there place for a while or he finds a nice suite somewhere( San Diego sounds nice this time of yearSmiley) till this all blows over.

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