Updated: 4:41 p.m. August 30, 2008

$132M jackpot ticket sold in Cobb

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Saturday, August 30, 2008

The mystery multi-millionaire remained a mystery Saturday to a Mableton store clerk where the latest winner of the Georgia Lottery’s Mega Million jackpot bought his ticket worth $132 million.

“We have been told the person bought here, but the person has not showed up yet,” said Ali Akber, a clerk at the Mableton Chevron, at 1450 Veterans Memorial Highway.

Through the morning speculation was rampant in the community, about 11 miles west of downtown Atlanta, about which store sold the ticket and who bought it.

“That’s exciting,” said Chanda Paquette, a waitress at Jolly Joe’s Restaurant & Pub, a few blocks from the Chevron. “The last person who won the lottery here owns the Chinese restaurant down the street and used the money to fix it up.”

That was in July 2007. And that winner, Marisa Hsiao, the owner of the House of China Chinese Restaurant,” won $300,000 on a scratch-off ticket.

Amanda Fullen, a clerk at the Chevron Food Mart, at 1290 Veterans Memorial Highway, said clerks at stores that sell lottery tickets in Mableton had been buzzing with the news because the store that sells the ticket gets a $25,000 cash prize.

But so far it was all talk, no jingle.

“The person who won is probably hiding,” said Fullen. “They don’t want to let anybody know they won.”

Georgia Lottery Corp. spokesman J. B. Landroche confirmed the location of where the ticket was sold but he said Saturday afternoon that lottery officials had not been contacted by the winner. And, because of the Labor Day holiday, officials would not know the winner — and the winner could not cash in the ticket — until Tuesday at the earliest.

“They have 180 days to cash it in,” he said.

The winning numbers were 21, 25, 26, 50 and 51. The Mega Ball number was 22.

Buford resident Lorie Scarbrough, who celebrated her 54th birthday Saturday, was awarded $5 million on Aug. 22 after she won in the Georgia Lottery’s 15th Anniversary Millionaire Extravaganza scratch-off game.

Scarbrough said at the time that the winning was a nice birthday present because she recently was laid off from her job as a customer service representative for an auto insurance company.

In addition to Friday night’s jackpot winner, there were two $10,000 ticket winners in the Mega Millions drawing, according to the lottery’s Web site. The Mega Millions jackpot for the next drawing, Tuesday night, is estimated at $12 million.

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