Rightful Owner Finally Receives $3m Mega Millions Prize

Paul Little from Massachusetts, USA, has finally been able to claim his $3 million Mega Millions win from the January 17 draw.

It’s been a worrying few months for the player after his Mega Millions tickets were allegedly stolen by two shop workers. He purchased the tickets from the Lakeville Market & Liquors Store but then left them behind.

Cathy Nunes (who had served him) allegedly saw the two tickets but then it’s believed that her colleague Joseph Reddem took the ticket from her.

False claim

The Mega Millions draw took place and one of his tickets won $3 million. Aware of this success, Nunes then went to lottery HQ and tried to claim the big win. The real winner was unaware he was a millionaire.

The lottery staff began to be suspicious when seeing that the Mega Millions ticket had burn marks on it and had been torn. Nunes claimed she had purchased the ticket and it was torn when taking it out of her wallet. The burn marks came from being placed on a pipe.

Surveillance footage showed that it was Mr Little who had purchased the ticket. An argument between the two shop workers was also captured on camera.  Redeem wasn’t pleased when Nunes allegedly told her she’d only pay him $200,000 for the ticket.

The search begins

Now the lottery officials had the task of finding the rightful owner. Posters were put up and local residents asking if they knew him. It was nearly a month before the diesel engineer was found and his $3 million winning Mega Millions ticket returned to him.

He now plans to use his winnings to pay off his mortgage. The lucky player also wants to make some charitable donations.

Nunes has pleaded not guilty to the larceny and attempted larcency charges against her. Reddem has also pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted extortion.

The next Mega Millions draw is on Friday and the top prize is a massive $560 million with a cash value of $281.1 million.

Get your Mega Millions tickets from Lottery24.