A Walmart employee who was called to work on her day off left a millionaire after buying a lottery ticket from a California Lottery machine.
The woman, Rebeca Gonzalez, works at a Los Angeles County Walmart and got a last-minute call to come in. Admittedly, she wasn’t looking forward to it, the California Lottery announced in a news release Tuesday.
“It was Labor Day and they only needed me for three hours,” Gonzalez told the lottery. “I wanted to obviously be home with my family because we planned to barbecue.”
She initially made plans to buy a Single Double Triple Scratchers game from a California Lottery vending machine but that three-hour workday got away from her.
'I couldn't believe it'
When she was headed out for the night, she walked by the California Lottery machine and remembered, spending $10 on a ticket. She won the $1 million top prize.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said about her winnings.
Walmart will get a $5,000 bonus for selling Gonzalez her ticket, lottery officials said.
Now, Gonzalez can pay off all her debt and she and her husband will be able to close on a new home, the lottery reported.
According to a California Lottery spokesperson, there are lottery machines in all 212 Walmart Supercenters in California, as well as some Walmart neighborhood markets.
Gonzales said she’s glad to have some extra cash but she’ll be keeping her gig at Walmart.
“I’ve only told one person at work, and it was the manager who wanted me to stay late on a holiday,” Gonzalez shared with lottery officials. “He couldn’t believe it.”
What’s the Single Double Triple Scratchers game and how do you play?
When playing the Single Double Triple Scratchers matching game, customers can:
- Win the prize for that game if they match any of the game numbers to any of the six winning numbers.
- Win two times the prize for that game if they match two game numbers in the same game to any of the winning numbers.
- Win three times the prize for that game if they match all three game numbers in the same game to any of the winning numbers.
And if customers wind up with tickets that haven’t won instantly, they can submit the non-winning scratchers ticket into the second chances game for another opportunity to win cash prizes in the weekly draw, lottery officials said.
Non-winning tickets can be entered into the second chances game by visiting www.calottery.com/2nd-chance and entering the first 13 digits of the entry code and the first seven digits of the ticket ID.
They can also enter non-winning tickets into the second chances game via the California Lottery mobile app.