PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A Portsmouth woman won $3 million from a Mega Millions ticket she had inside her nightstand for more than a month without realizing it, the Virginia Lottery said.
According to the lottery, Melena Hill bought a ticket for the Jan. 9 drawing using Easy Pick, which allowed a computer to randomly pick six numbers on her ticket.
When the winning numbers were drawn, she ended up matching the first five numbers and only missed the Mega Ball number. It took her five weeks to realize that she won $3 million
"My stomach had butterflies. I screamed a little bit," Hill told the Virginia Lottery.
She bought the winning ticket at Murphy USA, located at 6261 College Drive in Suffolk.
The winning numbers in the Jan. 9 drawing were 12-15-32-33-53 and the Mega Ball number was 24.
Mega Millions drawings are held on Tuesday and Friday nights at 11 p.m., the Virginia Lottery said. The odds of matching the first five numbers are 1 in 302,575,350.
All of the state's lottery profits go to K-12 education in Virginia.
Portsmouth, where Hill lives, got more than $16.4 million in lottery funds for K-12 education in the last fiscal year. In fiscal year 2023, the lottery raised more than $867 million for K-12 education, making up 10% of Virginia's total K-12 school budget.
