Steve, owner of Roosevelt Liquor & Grocery proudly stands in front of his store in Redwood City, Calif. (California Lottery)
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – A longtime neighborhood corner market on the Peninsula has sold a winning $2 million California Lottery Scratchers ticket.
For 20 years, Roosevelt Liquor & Grocery, located at Roosevelt Avenue and El Camino Real in Redwood City, has been a neighborhood fixture.
The store owner, known to everyone in the neighborhood as just Steve, has been a longtime vendor of California Lottery games, according to state lottery officials, who said he considers it “a great income stream for his small business.”
The store owner and his wife are well known in the community. He told lottery officials his customers have been coming in for years and that he has a great relationship with them.
Officials said this is the largest lotto prize the store has sold.
“Prior to this sale, the biggest prize he remembers selling was $250,000,” the California Lottery shared in a news release.
$10,000 bonus
The $2 million winning ticket also means a windfall for Steve and his wife.
For selling a Scratchers ticket with a prize that exceeds $1 million, Roosevelt Liquor & Grocery will receive a bonus of $10,000.
What we don’t know:
The California Lottery said that, unlike its games that involve a drawing, there’s no way to know when the winning Scratchers was sold, or even which specific game it was.
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California Lottery offers more than 50 different Scratchers games.
“We only know about the win and where the ticket came from when the winning ticket is scanned in a store, or in the California Lottery App, or, sometimes, when it is presented at a California Lottery district office as a claim,” lottery spokesperson Daniel Kelly explained to KTVU in an email.
Claims process to verify winner
Officials also noted that the winner still needs to undergo the standard, rigorous claims process, as is required for all big wins, to ensure that prizes go to the rightful winners.
That process includes being vetted by law enforcement to verify the legitimacy of the win.
Winners receive their prize once the process is complete, which takes six to eight weeks, according to lottery officials.
What’s next:
As for Steve, he’s proudly boasting his business as being a “millionaire-maker.” And he’s already made plans on how to spend some of that money he’s getting for selling the winning Scratchers.
“Next year I’m going to go to New York and visit my friend!” he told lottery officials.
