A liquor store in San Bruno opened extra early on Wednesday after the retailer ended up selling five out of six winning Mega Millions numbers in the country's sixth-largest lottery prize in U.S. history.
The owner of Huntington Liquor on Huntington Avenue in San Bruno didn't sell one of the two jackpot tickets totalling $400 million. But he did sell five out of six lucky numbers of a $1.9 million ticket.
Store manager Morris Manji told NBC Bay Area on Wednesday morning that he got a text from an employee at 4 a.m., so he jumped out of bed to "open the store early and get some exposure."
This was his store's first big win, and he said, "My God, what a day it's going to be. I'm really excited." Manji stands to earn half of 1 percent of the prize, or just under $10,000.
Lottery officials told NBC Bay Area a person claiming to be the winner of the $1.9 million ticket has come forward, but they are working to verify that information. Manji thinks it's either a "regular customer" or the "guy who works across the street at Caltrain."
The two big Mega Millions winners -- who have yet to come forward -- bought tickets at a Sunoco convenience store on Florida's Space Coast and near Washington, DC, in Charles County, Md. The winning tickets matched all six numbers in the Tuesday night drawing: 11, 19, 24, 33 and 51 with a Mega Ball of 7.
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The lump-sum option for the entire jackpot was $224 million. The cash option for each of the two winning tickets is about $112 million, Maryland lottery officials said through their Twitter account.
After taxes, the winner would get $74 million, they said.
