During a press conference held at the California Lottery offices in San Bernardino, on Wednesday, September 3, 2014, US Mega Millions winner Rick Knudsen admitted he was not a regular player and said he only places his numbers four or five times a year when he gets a lucky feeling.
Rick's powers of intuition certainly came up trumps for him last month when he won the $180 jackpot on Friday, August 22, 2014.
The 53-year-old Calimesa resident said was feeling especially lucky the day before the draw so he popped into a local 7-Eleven store and purchased a $5 Quick Pick ticket.
"I just had a lot of lucky things happening," Rick explained. "I’m a numbers guy. I don’t buy [tickets] unless I feel lucky."
Rick never checked the Mega Millions numbers on the night of the draw, so he didn’t realize he'd become a millionaire until his sister rang him the following morning and said: "Hey, somebody in Calimesa won the Mega Millions. Did you buy a ticket?"
Rick immediately got to work checking the numbers.
"I looked it up, saw the numbers—I scanned it with my eyes three times. 'I got this,' I told my wife, 'You need to check this out.'"
His wife, Lorie, took one look at the ticket and agreed.
"Oh my gosh!" she said. "You've got it!"
Rick and Lorie decided to take the prize as a one-off lump-sum payment of $107 million and received $80.25 million after taxes.
Speaking of their plans for the money, Rick said: "We’re just average people. We’re young, so we’re going to put it to good use."
