Just as hundreds of Campbell's Soup employees brace for the loss of their jobs when the facility closes next summer, plant machinist Michael Rule will be $250,000 richer.
On Oct. 30, the MEGA Millions lottery ticket he usually purchases once a week from A-1 Mart, at 2550 West El Camino in Sacramento's South Natomas area, matched five of the six drawn numbers. The only number he missed was the Mega number.
Rule plans to pay off some bills and invest the rest of the prize money, he said in a California Lottery news release.
The numbers that matched were a combination of birth dates of family members and some of their ages.
Though the odds of matching all numbers except for the Mega number are one in 4 million, someone walks away a winner almost every time.
"We have a winner that matches five out of six almost every draw," said Cathie Johnston, a spokesperson for the California Lottery.
MEGA Millions is played in multiple states and pays out over $100 million in prizes each year, according to the Lottery's website.
Campbell Soup Co's south Sacramento plant has made canned soup for more than 60 years. The plant will be phased out, with final shutdown coming next July. It will eliminate 700 full-time jobs, a devastating development in one of the region's most hardscrabble neighborhoods.
Editor's note: This story was changed Nov. 9 to correct the name and location of the market where the lottery ticket was purchased.
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