Steve Tran of Northern California came forward as the second Mega Millions lottery winner, it was reported Friday.
Steve Tran arrived at the California Lottery office in Sacramento on Thursday to claim his prize, reported the San Jose Mercury News.
If he chooses a lump sum of cash, he will get $173 million before taxes.
Tran purchased the winning ticked in San Jose, Calif., several weeks ago.
The other Mega Millions winner was identified as Georgia woman Ira Curry, who purchased her ticked in Atlanta.
Tran’s ticket was bought at Jenny’s Gift Shop in San Jose, state Lottery spokesman Alex Traverso told the Los Angeles Times.
“Everybody was anxious, looking for the person,” Tran was quoted as saying about the media coverage of the event.
Lottery officials did not disclose Tran’s age or where he lives.
“Tran said he added that ticket to a pile of other lottery tickets he had purchased in multiple other towns while making his runs as a delivery driver. According to Tran, the entire lot ended up, ‘just sitting in my house, on top of my drawer,’” the lottery said in a news release.
Tran apparently didn’t realize he was the winner of the second ticket until Monday. Tran said that he was on vacation with his family when he purchased it.
He told lotto officials that he “woke up in the middle of the night” and then remember that “I think I went to San Jose.”
AP update below:
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — California Lottery officials say the second of two winners of the $636 million Mega Millions jackpot has come forward to claim the prize.
Steve Tran of Northern California came forward Thursday afternoon, 16 days after officials revealed there were two winning jackpot tickets.
The other winner, Ira Curry, is from Georgia and came forward to claim her prize Dec. 18. Lottery officials there say she opted to take the lump sum payment of about $120 million after taxes.
The winning ticket in California was purchased at a gift shop in San Jose. The gift shop owner will receive $1 million.
The jackpot is the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history. It started its ascent Oct. 4. Lotto officials say 22 draws came and went without winners.
Some $336 million in tickets were sold for the Dec. 17 drawing.
Curry, of Stone Mountain, lives in a neighborhood of brick and stucco houses with manicured lawns about 10 miles east of Atlanta. She lives in a two-story home with a two-car garage and a basketball goal in the driveway. She purchased the ticket at the Gateway Newsstand in the Alliance Center building in Buckhead, a financial center in Atlanta.
The California ticket was sold by store owner Thuy Nguyen of Jennifer’s Gift Shop in San Jose. He will get $1 million, lottery officials in California said.
“When people hear jackpot winner was sold here, everybody want to come here,” Nguyen said in December after the drawing.
Nguyen sells a variety of items, including Buddha statues, Vietnamese DVDs, clocks and flip flops. The former hairstylist, who emigrated from Vietnam in the early 1990s, took over the shop four months ago.
