Latino Immigrant Store Owners Who Sold Winning Powerball Ticket Get $1 Million Bonus
Las Palmitas Mini Market, located in downtown Los Angeles near Skid Row, sold Wednesday night’s winning $1.08 billion Powerball ticket. Now, store owners Maria Leticia Menjivar, 50, and husband Nabor Herrera, 52, get a $1 million bonus for selling it to the winner.
The convenience store is located on 1205 Wall Street, and as per The Los Angeles Times, sells food items including pan dulce, money orders, and yes… very lucky lottery tickets.
Shop owner Menjivar and her family, who emigrated from El Salvador, could barely believe the news. Daughter Angelica Menjivar, 35, described their hectic morning: “We started to get calls at 5 a.m. We thought it was a spam caller.”
While not much is known yet about the Powerball winner, we know Las Palmitas Mini Market sold them the winning ticket. Plus, they may live around Skid Row.
As Herrera joked to reporters yesterday, “The store is small,” but their luck is “big.”
Employees who work nearby are “very, very excited” about the Powerball news
According to Associated Press, this week’s winning Powerball ticket is the sixth largest in U.S. history. Want to make a note of the incredibly-lucky numbers (you know, just in case)? The white balls read 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 with a red Powerball 24.
Las Palmitas Mini Market received a huge, congratulatory $1 million check as a bonus for selling the ticket. They also now have a sign in the store that says, “Billionaire made here.”
Store manager Herrera spoke to KTLA 5 about the shocking news, explaining how he didn’t know what had happened until arriving at the store Thursday morning. “I tell you, this [was] a surprise for me. I didn’t know what it [was], filming or what?”
“Somebody won the ticket, I don’t who is that, but they’re around here.”
“I have many Korean, Latino [customers]. Many people buy; I don’t who it is,” he explained. And about that very special $1 million bonus for him and his family?
“I have to make more business, [buy] more items,” he shared. “I can expand the business, or a little vacation.” His travel choice? Cabo San Lucas or Cancun, mentioning his four children while describing their future lucky trip. We love this so much.
Herrera also told the Los Angeles Times that he is “very happy,” adding that the winner could be one of his many Latino customers.
Lucy Jamil, an employee who works at a shop nearby, told Associated Press: “I’m very excited — very, very excited.”
She also hoped the winner was someone who worked or lived by Skid Row, which has an estimated count of 4,400 people experiencing homelessness. The neighborhood has the highest concentration of homelessness in Los Angeles County.
“This morning when I woke up I was praying to God, you know, God willing it’s gonna be somebody who works over here,” Jamil said.
While we know Las Palmitas Mini Market sold the ticket, the winner remains unconfirmed
While we know Las Palmitas Mini Market just made someone a billionaire, we still don’t know who the winner is.
California Lottery spokesperson, Carolyn Becker, told the Associated Press: “We have to spend time vetting the winner to make sure it is the right person.”
“We will probably not know for months and months,” she added.
Becker also told reporters that the winner might not even know they’re a billionaire yet. “We’re standing here today wondering if the person who bought the ticket even realizes it.”
“We won’t know at the lottery, the public won’t know, until somebody comes forward and claims that prize.”
According to Powerball, the ticket holder is the only winner of the $1 billion prize.
Interestingly, some people believe they might have a clue who the lucky winner is. As posted by Inside Edition, a woman entered Las Palmitas Mini Market yesterday claiming she won the Powerball draw.
She entered the store crying and screaming, saying, “God bless you” and “Thank you.”
When asked if she was the winner, she replied, “Yes” and drove off.
However, when reporters asked Herrera what he thought, he replied: “I think it’s fake.” He said he had never seen the woman before. Still, daughter Angelica Menjivar said it could be true. She believes the woman in the video is actually the winner’s daughter.
Congratulations to the lucky winner and to Las Palmitas Mini Market!
