MARYSVILLE, Ohio — Julia Eickhoff sure knows how to sweeten the pot for her customers. The manager at Marysville’s Corner Carry Out offers up candy or fruit to her lottery customers at checkout.
“Come on down, we’ll take care of you,” she joked.
Eickhoff and the store owner, Ricky Patel, were in a jovial mood on Wednesday after learning the store had sold a $1 million winning Mega Millions ticket.
“Marysville is hot right now,” Patel said.
The owner is referencing several lottery wins in the city in recent months. His store sold a $50,000 winning ticket last year, along with a $10,000 winning ticket in November. And, on Wednesday, the winner of a $39.3 million prize sold at another store in Marysville last fall claimed the prize.
But the recent $1 million prize was the largest ever won on a ticket sold at Corner Carry Out.
“I’ve been telling my lottery representative that it’s time for us to have a big winner,” Eickhoff said.
For now, the identity of the winner is still a mystery. Patel said he tried asking the lottery representative to at least confirm the day and time the ticket was sold, but that wasn’t allowed. His goal was to check his cameras to see if he could figure out the winner.
That’s because he and Eickhoff feel confident the winner is a regular customer. The shop is not a gas station, nor is it near a major interstate or thoroughfare. So it’s not likely the customer was someone just passing through the area, Patel said.
“In Ohio, you can claim any jackpot anonymously, so we may never know who the winner is,” Eickhoff said. “That would be a bummer. I’m excited. I hope we know who it is.”
While the customer has won big, the store also receives $1,000 for selling the winning ticket. Patel says he is still determining how that money could be spent, but he may decide to share it with his employees.