MANASSAS, Va. — A Manassas man has won $1 million after months of being told his lottery ticket was not a winner when, in fact, it was.
Officials said that Malcolm Meredith showed his ticket for the May 20 Mega Millions drawing and after being told it wasn't a winner, he held onto it. Weeks later he got a second opinion on his ticket, not knowing its potential worth.
Upon visiting the Virginia Customer Service Center in Woodbridge, Meredith found out from officials that his ticket was indeed valid and that he won $1 million.
Back in May, when Merideth bought his lottery ticket, he let the computer pick his numbers by using the Easy Pick option at a Harris Teeter in Manassas. Meredith's ticket had the first five winning numbers but not the Mega Ball number. Had his ticket had the Mega Ball number, officials said he would have won $131 million.
Despite Meredith being just one number off from winning the mega million, he was the only one in the United States to have all of the first five numbers on a ticket for that drawing, according to officials. The odds of matching the first five numbers is 1 in 12,607,306. The odds are even higher for matching all six numbers which officials say is 1 in 302,575,350.
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