Walmart worker’s last-minute shift leads to huge CA lottery win. ‘Couldn’t believe it’
When Rebeca Gonzalez’s manager called her on Labor Day asking that she come in to work on her day off, “she wasn’t particularly thrilled.”
Her employer, a Walmart in the City of Industry, only needed her to work three hours, the California Lottery said in a Nov. 26 news release.
“I wanted to obviously be home with my family because we planned to barbecue,” Gonzalez told lottery officials.
Even still, Gonzalez trudged into work.
Little did she know, that work shift would lead her to a life-changing lottery prize.
“Looking back, she can laugh because it was all worth it,” lottery officials said.
Gonzalez had planned on buying a lottery ticket during her break, but the store was so busy that she forgot, she said.
“I didn’t remember I was going to buy a (scratch-off ticket) until I left for the night and passed by the machines,” Gonzalez said.
She bought a Single Double Triple Scratchers ticket.
And, to her amazement, her $10 ticket won her a top prize of $1 million, lottery officials said.
“I couldn’t believe it,” the woman said.
So far, Gonzalez told lottery officials she’s just told one manager of her big win.
He, too, “couldn’t believe it,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez told lottery officials she will use some of her prize “to pay off all her debt.”
“And now she and her husband are closing on a new home,” lottery officials said.
Despite her win, Gonzalez told lottery officials she has no plans of quitting and continues to put “in her hours at Walmart.”
City of Industry is about a 20-mile drive southeast from Los Angeles.
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 10:14 AM with the headline "Walmart worker’s last-minute shift leads to huge CA lottery win. ‘Couldn’t believe it’."
