$1M winning Mega Millions ticket sold at Aston Giant

ASTON » There may be tens of thousands of items on the shelves at the Giant Food Store in Aston, but the most in-demand item Tuesday wasn’t on the shelves: Another winning Mega Millions lottery ticket.

The store, located at 3400 Concord Road, sold a ticket worth a cool $1 million when the numbers were pulled on July 20 in a jackpot drawing worth $433 million, according to Pennsylvania lottery officials. The winner from the Aston draw has not yet come forward.

Giant sold one of two tickets that matched the first white ball numbers of the 70 that were pulled for the twice-weekly Mega Millions drawing: 1-14-30-4462. Both tickets missed the yellow ball number, 1, that would have won them the entire pot. The other ticket was sold in Illinois

The store collected a $5,000 selling bonus for the winning ducat.

In the meantime, the jackpot for the Mega Millions rises to $522 million, fifth-largest in game history. That would deliver a cash prize of $308 million.

Store assistant manager Michael Hearn said Tuesday morning that it was really surprising that such a big prize came from his store.

“It’s cool to see it,” he said. “There’s a buzz in the air like ‘Oh, I wish I was there (to buy a ticket).’”

Because no one won Friday’s drawing, Tuesday night’s jackpot climbed to $522 million.

To prepare for an even bigger jackpot, and especially after selling a $1 million ticket, more store associates were scheduled to handle lottery ticket sales. There has been a bump in sales since news broke Monday that the store could offer people a chance to win millions from a $2 ticket.

“People think it’s the lucky store,” said Hearn.

Giant Food Stores spokesman Chris Brand said the company was thrilled to be a part of someone’s happiness.

“It’s always exciting to hear that someone hit the big jackpot,” he said. “We made the rounds yesterday (at their Carlisle corporate office) and we’re always excited to hear that kind of news coming from one of our stores.”

Brand and Hearn said they have never seen a prize so big coming from their Giant stores.

But having two big tickets from the same store, or even the same chain of stores? Brand said he would not conjecture the possibility.

Hearn was more hopeful about the odds.

“Anything is possible. Someone’s luck is out there and we’ve had one already,” he said.

Customers at the Aston store were surprisingly mum on the topic of shopping at a lucky store, but one did wish the still yetto-be-named winner the best of luck.

Varying sources indicate that winning the lottery with a jackpot of hundreds of millions has odds that are just as high and that only increase as the jackpot grows.

Two jackpot-winning Mega Millions tickets have been sold in Pennsylvania since the state joined the game in 2010. The largest was a $91.8 million cash prize claimed by a Virginia man in 2015.

Mega Millions tickets are sold until 9:59 p.m. on drawing nights in Pennsylvania.

Mega Millions is played in 44 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.