Joliet's Lottery Winner Comes Forward At Sunshine Food Mart

JOLIET, IL — This week, the Sunshine Food Mart on Joliet's Wilcox Street is turning into Illinois lottery central as hundreds of area customers visit the convenience store to buy their lucky tickets.

Last week, Sunshine Food Mart sold a $100,000 winning ticket, and that's motivated lottery players from the area to buy their tickets at the store near the corner of Ruby and Wilcox.

During Tuesday's interview, Joliet store manager Sam Masood told Joliet Patch that last Thursday's winner did not even realize he won prior to entering the store to do his shopping. Masood said the winner is from the neighborhood, a man in his late 50s or early 60s.

Masood did not believe the man wanted his name revealed just yet.

"A regular customer, at least it was somebody we know," Masood remarked.

Masood said last week's lottery winner approached the counter, and he handed over his ticket to see if he won anything.

"He came in, did I win $100,000?" Masood recalled.

When the man learned he won $100,000, "he started shaking, and he got so happy," Masood said. "He was shocked."

In preparation for this week's $2 billion Powerball, "it was a madhouse on Monday, people get excited," Masood said. "People I've never seen before come in, and we see our regulars, too."

Since news of the winning ticket spread on social media, "a lot of people have been buying the scratch off (tickets) and winning," one of the store clerks said.

On Tuesday, Patch reported that lottery officials have confirmed that a winning Powerball ticket was sold in California for Monday's record-setting jackpot, which topped out at more than $2 billion.

"California Lottery makes its FIRST EVER Billionaire!," the California Lottery tweeted Tuesday. "One lucky ticket sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena matched all 6 numbers in the November 7 #Powerball draw. The final jackpot amount for this draw came to $2.04 BILLION dollars."

Here in Joliet, Masood said his family's store on Wilcox Street will receive a 1 percent commission, which is $1,000, for selling last week's $100,000 Illinois lottery winning ticket.

He's thrilled that whenever his customers win big.

About seven or eight years ago, he said, the same Sunshine Food Mart sold a $200,000 winning lottery ticket.

"This presents hope for them and hope for us," Masood said. "We look forward to selling big, big winners."

During the interview with Masood, one middle-aged woman waiting at the counter to pay for her groceries approached Joliet Patch's editor and said, "you put in there they are the nicest people ever. They treat you like family."

Joliet Patch asked Masood if the day will come when the Sunshine Food Market will sell a winning ticket that tops $1 million.

"I'm very optimistic it might be sooner and we hit the bigger one," he proclaimed.