Newton Convenience Store Sells $1 Million Scratch Ticket

On the Upper Falls Variety Store's scratch ticket "wall of fame," roughly 17 photo copies of winning tickets create a display of customers who were lucky enough to take home more than $1,000. 

Earlier today, owner Tom O'Shaughnessy had a gem to add to that wall of fame. 

Around 7 a.m., a city of Newton employee came in to get his daily cup of coffee and scratch tickets. He walked out with a $1 million winner, O'Shaughnessy said.

The employee, whom O'Shaughnessy did not wish to name, came in this morning and won $25 on the first scratch ticket he purchased. He then turned around and purchased two more tickets -- one for $20 and one for $5 -- and proceeded to go to the back of the store to scratch and see if they were winners. 

O'Shaughnessy told Patch that his wife, Ann-Carrington O'Shaughnessy, sold the tickets to the city employee. After he purchased the second two, she yelled to the back of the store, "did you win?"

The employee responded by saying he had won $1 million, but Ann-Carrington didn't believe it.

Then, she saw the man's hands were shaking and she realized he wasn't kidding, Tom O'Shaughnessy said. 

In the 13 years Tom O'Shaughnessy has owned the Upper Falls Variety, he's sold quite a few winning scratch tickets, but the highest until this point has been $200,000.

When a store sells a winning ticket, O'Shaughnessy said the store gets a 1 percent "bonus." In the case of the $1 million winner, that would be $10,000.

The bonus money is then deposited directly into a the store's lottery account.

After the customer showed them the winning ticket, the O'Shaughnessys scanned the ticket into the lottery machine to confirm it was worth $1 million. Once it was verified, the city employee signed the ticket, received a slip from the store and went on his way -- but not before the O'Shaughnessys could make a photo copy for their wall of fame. 

"My wife told him, 'do not lose that ticket!" O'Shaughnessy said.