SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The numbers are baffling. The jackpot in the Mega Millions draw on Tuesday, May 29 was huge — $32 million. That money will soon be Cindy Huynh's to enjoy.
Huynh walked into the California Lottery's Santa Ana District Office and submitted her winning ticket. That lucky little slip of paper hit the numbers 2, 14, 29, 53, 55, and the Mega number of 31. The riches are so overwhelming that Huynh said she has barely slept or eaten since realizing that she, and only she, can lay claim to the jackpot prize.
Also stunning, is what Huynh had been doing with her ticket since she purchased it at Aquapuro, which is located at 1151 East Holt Avenue in Pomona (Los Angeles County). Huynh had the slip buried in her purse. She casually carried the bag and ticket around, often setting the purse down, completely unaware of the paper's colossal value. That nonchalant attitude quickly changed the moment she checked the numbers on her Quick Pick ticket. Huynh immediately went into a protective mode. "I hid it. I made a photo copy to show my family members. I hid the original," Huynh explained.
Even though the ticket is now safely out of her hands, she is unable to relax and talk about her future plans. "My mind is kind of blank. I need to calm down first," Huynh said.
She isn't the only one financially impacted by the draw. The retailer, Aquapuro, will receive $160,000 for selling the winning ticket.
A different ticket sold in Rancho Santa Margarita (Orange County) matched five numbers. Lottery player Darrell Norris said the $179,442 he won is more than enough to keep him from feeling bad about missing the Mega. "I'm pretty excited for them," Norris said.
May was a tremendous month for California Lottery Players. On May 15, a ticket sold in Los Angeles hit a Mega Millions jackpot worth $25 million and has since been claimed. However, a SuperLotto Plus ticket that hit a $23 million jackpot on Wednesday, May 30 remains unclaimed. That ticket was purchased at Michael's Market & Liquor, which is located at 37935 47th Street East in Palmdale (Los Angeles County). The winning numbers were 14, 7, 26, 31, 23, and Mega 5.
Sweet!
Interesting note: Had she been one of these people that only played when the jackpot was huge ($100 million+?), she would have
dashed those winnings, and contined her meager day to day existance.
I will believe in the lottery when I win the jackpot myself or anybody known by me. The lottery wants you to believe that it is better to play for lower jackpots, since they will not have to pay much for it.
I hope Huynh plans to move or hide or go on a vacation or something...considering that it's L.A. and all.
Congrats to another winner !
I cannot wait to read the story about the Scottdale PA area winner ! They reveal name and town anywho .............
Yeah, I'm really happy for Ms. Huynh...
I've only been playing for 30yrs for god's sake!
When? When?
I certainly agree with you because I've been playing almost the same amount of time!!
To make matters worse, if we found out she won it on a single QP and has been playing less amount time, then the Lottery Fairy has not been fair at all!!
GOOD LUCK IN WINNING THE BIG JACKPOT
Why would she need to hide because she lives in L.A. ?
All the glitz and glamour, celebrities, Beverly Hills, who's thinking about a lotto winner
lol
$32 million.That money will soon be Cindy Huynh's to enjoy.No,Let's get the facts here.After federal taxes of 20%,it's more like $25.6 million to enjoy.Congrats to Cindy.
20% federal tax?I don't think so.More like 25% right off the top and then another 5% at tax time if she doesn't listen to her lawyer and financial advisor.I don't understand why California doesn't tax lottery winnings,especially since the state is broke.Just another one of those things that California does (or doesn't do,in this case) that make you scratch your head,I guess.
Nice win. very nice win.
Congrats to the lucky lady
Wonder how long she walked around with the ticket in purse. Can't remain anonymous in Cali? Too bad...
Congrats to the winner! Always like stories like this.
Holla Dollar! What more can we do to win "something"?
Yeah, what makes me really jealous is when they say they never played before, played $1.00 and didn't even know how to check the numbers!
What more do I need to do God?
I clean my room, feed the dog, nice to my neighbors and co-workers, love my kid, buy girl scout cookies, don't park in handicap spaces, pay my taxes, hold doors open at the grocery store for the people coming in or out behind me, and pray, pray, pray.
And still no LUCK!!!
I resemble this guy!!!
I don't think anyone believes it's better to play for lower jackpots. They do, however, see it as smarter not to put all your eggs in one basket (ie; the larger jackpot instead of the smaller and the larger).
And try telling this lady she was a sucker for playing a "small" jackpot and only winning $18,000,000. And that she should have skipped on buying that QP for that measly draw amount when instead she should be saving up for the $100+ million draws. I'm sure if she could take it all back she would.
I agree with the tax amount, but I think all states that have state income taxes should follow California's example and NOT tax lottery winnings. If I were elected to Congress or the Presidency, I would introduce legislation or push Congress to exempt lottery winnings from federal taxes. I would more than offset that loss of revenue by legalizing and taxing MJ and other illicit drugs as well as prostitution of all types except underage, of course (minimum age will be same as legal age of consent). Let lucky people enjoy the full amount of their winnings just like Canadians and Brits. The war on drugs is a losingproposition that we need to fight by legalizing and taxing just like we did with alcohol. For those who don't know, violence was high due to black market alcohol during Prohibition. Do we still have gangs fighting over alcohol territory? NO, and the same will occur when we legalize all drugs and prostitution. Those who object on moral grounds should note that prostitution is legal in The Netherlands, Canada, parts of UK, and even Singapore and MJ possession is legal in Portugal, The Netherlands, and other places that have not gone to hell with chaos, violence, and corruption. Yet, it seems corruption reigns supreme in countries that outlaw both.
I think Americans have become cowards hiding behind their moral high horses. Under my watch, a lottery winner of a $241 million jackpot would be able to enjoy all $241 million, and celebrate by smoking a blunt and getting a legal knob job! Can I count on your support?
OldSchoolPa's lottery dream!
You can count on my support, I have convinced my state of NH to adopt the slogan "Live Free Or Die", and to abolish state tax on any lottery
winnings. The only hurdle left is to legalize all illicit drugs, so that the crack heads of our nation can find refuge, peace and a welcome warm
welcome mat to our prestigious and tolerant state.
Congratulations to the winner....
First off,I wasn't saying that California SHOULD tax lottery winnings.I was just wondering out loud WHY THEY DON"T tax lottery winnings when their state is BANKRUPT.
Secondly,I don't advocate the legalizing of ALL drugs because I've seen what drugs do to people.Legalizing marijuana is one thing but legalizing other drugs is quite another thing altogether.I don't and won't lump ALL drugs into the the same catagory as harmless drugs.Marijuana is harmless in its natural form but when it is laced with PCP or other chemicals it becomes dangerous.The trouble is,how do you know what or if the joint you purchase is laced with an illegal substance?People do die (or worse) from ingesting illegal chemicals into their systems everyday.Find a way for people to take meth safely and I might go along with your stupid argument to legalize ALL drugs,but until you can prove to me that a meth user won't flip out because of the crap that he put into his/her body,I will vote to continue making the drug illegal!Anytime that you use drano or other caustic substances to produce a drug you are playing with fire.Anyone who would injest a concoction of battery acid and drano isn't exactly playing with a full deck of cards and really shouldn't be taken seriously in a discussion on the legalizing of drugs.I don't buy into the argument that its their body and they can put what they want into it because they aren't hurting anyone but themselves.There isn't a day that goes by that I don't read where a methhead has flipped out and killed their entire family or some other horriffic crime that was drug related.I know to many people that are addicted to this poison to turn a blind eye to the problem.I know to many people that have gone through "rehab" time after time to no avail.I know to many people who have committed suicide because of this supposedly harmless drug.So don't tell me about legalizing ALL drugs.It's an insane idea.INSANE!
They should legalize white lightnin' before anything else.
Not that it matters to me.
I went into the store to purchase a $1 Mega Millions ticket and saw that they recently sold a winning lottery tickets for $24,000 and $240,000 respectively!
I am hoping that the trend continues!
GREEN WITH MONEY ................ THE WAY TO GO ..............
You need to adopt a reverse plan of action Golfer. Just shout out to the lottery Gods, that you really don't give a dam if you should ever win!!!
Being nice is nice, but trying not holding the door one time for that little old lady, maybe this reverse Karma will help to boomerang your luck.
That's the 2nd straight Mega Millions Jackpot winning ticket sold in California in the year 2012.
Quite a few states don't tax lottery winnings because they already got their cut of the pie since the predominant amount of lottery revenue goes to the state's education fund, with administrative costs and winning payouts accounting for the rest.
Mind you, just because they already took a slice of pie hasn't always stopped states (or the federal government) from taking some more. But at least a lot of states do recognize that since they take in the lion's share of lottery money right off the bat, they don't need to double dip.
Here is California, they take out 25% in federal tax withholding for large jackpots, and this $32M win will definitely put the winner in the highest tax bracket (35%) so she will likely have to fork over another 10% at tax time, because at that point even typical deductions like home mortgage interest don't amount to much compared to the jackpot. It would take a lot to even get a 1% reduction based on deductions, because that is already $3.2M, which is quite a bit of mortgage interest, charitable contribution, etc.
Not that I wouldn't enjoy having the problem of having to pay taxes on $32M. I'm just saying that the reality is that you'd have to pay almost all of the 35% due from that bracket due to the ratio of deductions to AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) which in this case would be a much larger number than the average bear earns annually.
Just to clean up my mistakes:
I meant "Here in California"
and the 1% would be $320K, which is still a lot for one year's worth of home mortgage interest, etc.
But, again, it wouldn't be a bad problem to have, to have to pay $11.2M in taxes in one year. Wait, did I just say that?
Let me backtrack and change it to I GUESS that it would feel good to be in position to pay that much tax. That's one of the reasons that they withhold 25% from the big lotto check. That way, they have their $8M and only a paltry amount of about $3M would have to be paid later, so it doesn't seem to sting as much while writing that check to the IRS.
congrat.............cindy huynh
i guess she is first vietnamese won the JP IN USA