COLUMBIA, SC (FOX Carolina) -
The Upstate winners of Tuesday night's Mega Millions drawing have claimed their prize.
Eight coworkers at TTI, formerly Ryobi, in Anderson bought the $1 Mega Millions ticket together, and now they're splitting the $250,000 prize.
Each person will take home $21,250 after taxes. The coworkers, whose ages range from 30 to 59,
started buying lottery tickets together last year.
Members had
been upset they had not won anything in the past year, so when the group's appointed leader saw they won and called to tell them so, they didn't believe him.
"I hung up on him," confessed one of the winners. But they were all later convinced they won.
One winner said he was going to go to Disney World with his winnings. And more coworkers said they wanted to join the group, including one member that had recently left the group.
"One sucker got out," said one of the winners.
"Tomorrow he's going to start back."
South Carolina Education Lottery officials said the winning $250,000 ticket was purchased for the Jan. 17 drawing at the KMO store at 1501 Pearman Dairy Road in Anderson.
The winning ticket matched all five white ball numbers. Officials said if the person had bought the Megaplier for $1 more, they would have won an automatic $1 million.
"This is just the beginning anyway," refuted the group's
spokesman. "We'll be back for the jackpot."
The winning numbers were 3, 15, 31, 36 and 53, with Megaball number 27 and Megaplier number 2.
The KMO store received a $2,500 commission for selling the claimed ticket.
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