BEAVERTON, Ore. — A Beaverton man almost lost out on being $1 million richer when several lottery tickets almost blew out the window after his wife pulled down the sun visor in their car.
Jose Martinez’s wife was able to quickly retrieve the tickets, including an unsigned ticket worth $1 million.
“I went on a business trip and left the tickets between the sun visor and the roof of my car,” Martinez said. “If the ticket would have flown out the window, we wouldn’t have won $1 million.”
Lottery officials said Martinez purchased the ticket on May 14, the day of the drawing. He matched 5 of the 6 winning numbers: 11-59-66-67-68 and Mega Ball 18. Unfortunately, Martinez had no idea he had won.
It wasn’t until the tickets were almost lost that his wife suggested that he check the tickets.
“She told me to check the tickets in the car,” he said. “I used the Lottery’s app and the first ticket I scanned was the $1 million ticket. I really like the app now.”
Martinez said he scanned the tickets three times and downloaded the app on his wife’s phone to prove to her that he had won. He said he’s going to use his winnings to pay off their home.
Bobby Sigh, the owner of S&S Market, will receive a 1 percent selling bonus for selling the winning ticket. Sigh says that in their 17 years in business they had never sold a ticket like that before.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “We are going to put the bonus back into our business. It’s very shocking and we are happy that one of our regular customers won.”
Mega Millions is one of the two multi-state lottery games offered by the Oregon Lottery. The last Mega Millions winner in Oregon was Lori Mingus from Springfield. She won $3 million in November 2018.
