Scammer
Banned
- Mega Millions jackpot winners and Washington state residents Jim and Carolyn McCullar stepped forward on Thursday to claim their half of a $380 million prize during a Washington State Lottery news conference.
"I had faith one day that we were going to hit it," she said. "You got to have faith."
Jim McCullar, 68, had previously worked as a real estate agent from Ephrata, with a population of just more than 6,000 in central Washington.
He said that he was initially scared to come forward, saying he felt like "a field mouse" as hawks circled overhead.
"All we saw were predators and we were afraid to do anything until we got down here with police protection," McCullar said.
He then opened his wallet and counted the money inside. "I got eight dollars," he said, raising the oversized check for $190 million dollars over his head. "I couldn't get this in my wallet."
The other winner, with whom the family will split the $380 million jackpot, has yet to come forward. That person is from Idaho.
The McCullars' ticket was sold at a Safeway store in Ephrata, lottery officials said.
Store manager Geoff Bell told CNN affiliate KREM that the phones began to ring off the hook when news surfaced that the store had sold one of the two winning tickets.
"It's great for the community. It's nice that Safeway can be a part of helping somebody make some dreams come true for them," Bell told the affiliate.
The ticket in Idaho was sold in Post Falls, near the border with Washington state.
Tuesday's Mega Millions numbers were 4, 8, 15, 25, 47 and 42 (42 was the Mega Ball number).
As days went by without a winner, residents in the 42 states that take part in the Mega Millions drawing rushed to stores to buy more and more tickets, pushing the jackpot to $380 million, the second-highest in the drawing's history.
The highest was $390 million in 2007.
