Single Mom of Four Sons Accidentally Wins $14M Lotto

MISSION VIEJO, CA -- When Thuan Le, a single mother of four boys, entered the CVS Pharmacy on Santa Margarita Parkway, she followed her usual routine. She spent $5: $4 on Powerball lottery tickets, $1 on SuperLotto Plus.

But something was different this time. She accidentally slipped $6 into the machine.

She thought, "I might as well get another SuperLotto Plus ticket," state lotto officials said. The sixth ticket was the big payout, winning her $14 million.

When she discovered she had won Thursday morning, she ran out of the store screaming. Le plans to buy a house, travel and visit her parents in Vietnam.

The store gets a piece of the winnings, too. Half a percent will be given to CVS, which totals $70,000.

Here's more from the California Lottery:

Thuan Le is a hard-working single mother of four sons. She is also very excitable. In fact, when she ran her SuperLotto Plus ticket through the terminal and realized she had won a $14 million jackpot, she ran screaming out of the store! Luckily, Le received the information on how to claim her ticket and went to the California Lottery’s Santa Ana District Office to do just that.

Le and a friend usually go together and buy their Lottery tickets at the same time, but yesterday, Le went by herself to purchase her usual $4 worth of POWERBALL® and $1 in SuperLotto Plus from her local CVS Pharmacy. She accidentally put $6 in the self-service terminal and bought her tickets. When she realized she still had $1 in credit, she thought, “I might as well get another SuperLotto Plus ticket.” That 6th ticket was the winner.

(Thursday) morning, when her friend asked if she had checked her tickets yet, she replied she hadn’t, so the friend went to get the winning numbers. When she returned with them and they all matched, Le rushed over to check for herself. Shortly after that is when she left screaming. Le called her sons and one of them came over to take her to claim her prize. “We thought she was joking,” her son explained, “but we thought would she really joke like this? My older brother said, ‘yes, she would’.”  They quickly realized she was not joking and couldn’t be happier for their mom. Le plans to buy a house, travel, and visit her parents in Vietnam.

Le’s ticket was purchased at the CVS Pharmacy located at 27750 Santa Margarita Parkway in Mission Viejo (Orange County). The winning numbers were 5, 33, 25, 46, 32, and the Mega number 26. CVS Pharmacy will receive a bonus of one half percent, or $70,000, for selling the winning ticket.

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