SACRAMENTO – Mildred Wiedemer recently came forward as the lucky winner of the $7 million SuperLOTTO Plus® jackpot from the October 21st draw.
Ms. Wiedemer realized shortly after the draw on October 21st that she had matched all six numbers. “I watched the draw and I wrote the numbers down but I got so excited I couldn’t read my own writing. I kept telling my husband, if that’s a ‘10’ we won,” explained Ms. Wiedemer. She called the retailer who made her repeat the numbers to him over the phone and then she called her daughter who checked the numbers again on the Lottery’s website. When asked what she did next when she realized she really did win, she said, “My daughter came over with flowers, balloons and champagne! After that we went and had dinner at Denny’s but we could hardly eat because we got the giggles knowing we had a secret from all the other diners, we were Lottery winners!” Millionaires and champagne, they go hand in hand, but millionaires and Denny’s? Maybe it’s a new trend!
The ticket was sold at Simple Beverage & Cigar located at 17290 Monterey Road in Morgan Hill, 95037. John JH Kim, owner of the store, will receive a retailer bonus of approximately $35,000, or 1/2 of 1% of the jackpot, for selling the winning ticket. When asked what he would do with the bonus, Kim said happily, “I’m going to fix up my parking lot with it.”
Public education receives at least 34 cents of every dollar players spend on Lottery products. The California Lottery contributed a record $1.28 billion to public education in 2005-06 out of historic sales of $3.58 billion, the sixth year in a row the Lottery has provided more than $1 billion in supplemental funding for education. Since its inception in 1985, the Lottery has contributed more than $18 billion to California schools.
Ms. Wiedemer took the cash option, which will be about half of the announced jackpot or $3.5 million. When asked what she plans on doing with her prize, she said, “Now we can get new carpet, our sun room, a new car and we now plan on going to Italy and Germany next year.” Might we suggest restocking your refrigerator with champagne, you are going to need it for all your upcoming celebrations!