One lucky person in California is now a whole lot richer after purchasing a winning Mega Millions ticket at a gas station.
The California Lottery announced in a post on X that the winning $1.269 billion Mega Millions ticket, which has a cash value of $571.9 million, was purchased at a Circle K (Sunshine Food and Gas) at 3505 Rhonda Road in Cottonwood.
The store will receive a $1 million bonus, the highest a California Lottery retail partner can earn, as a result of selling the winning ticket, per a press release.
The winning ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Friday, Dec. 27: white balls 3, 7, 37, 49, 55, and the gold Mega Ball 6. According to a follow-up media release, this made it the fifth-largest Mega Millions jackpot in history and the seventh Mega Millions jackpot greater than $1 billion.
Mega Millions said that the Dec. 27 drawing alone produced 5,691,299 winning tickets across all prize tiers, in addition to the jackpot-winning ticket, with five tickets matching the five white balls to win the game’s second-tier prize.
The jackpot winner has one year to come forward, while anyone with a secondary prize-winning ticket has six months to claim.
In a post on Facebook, Circle K (Sunshine Food and Gas) said it was “honestly speechless” for its role in the drawing.
“To the winner, we couldn’t be more thrilled for you. To our amazing community—thank you for supporting us and making us part of your daily lives,” the post continued. “Whether it’s for gas, snacks or just a friendly hello, you all mean the world to us. Here’s to dreams coming true and to the wonderful people who make Cottonwood so special.”
Circle K (Sunshine Food and Gas) is owned by Jaspal Singh, who runs it with his son, Director of Operations Ishar Gill, per KRCR.
Gill recalled finding out about the big win to the news station.
“I had to read it two, three times. I told my wife, and then we ran over to my dad’s room and told him, and he’s like, ‘Are you guys sure?… Did we really win?’ ” he said. “Everybody knows about it. Everybody’s excited.”