S.C. Mega Millions Winner Finally Claims Prize — and Reveals They Let Someone Cut Them in Line to Get Ticket

Lottery officials announced on Monday that the winner of the $1.5 billion Mega Millions drawing from October 2018 has stepped forward to claim their prize.

The winner — who opted to remain anonymous — chose the cash option of a one-time payment of $877,784,124, the largest jackpot payout to a single winner in United States history, the South Carolina Education Lottery Commission said in a statement. (In January 2016, three tickets in Florida, Tennessee and California divvied up a larger $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot.)

The winner also revealed that, on the day they bought the winning ticket, they had allowed another customer to cut them in line while at the store.

“The winner marvels at how every decision made that day brought the winner to the store, at that very moment, to make the Quick Pick Mega Millions lottery ticket purchase,” the statement read. “A simple act of kindness led to an amazing outcome.”

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“We are delighted that the winner is a South Carolinian and has come forward to claim this remarkable prize,” Hogan Brown, the Commission’s Executive Director, said. “We respect the winner’s decision to remain anonymous, and we will honor the winner’s wishes.”

Brown added that the store that sold the winning ticket — KC Mart in Simpsonville, S.C., will receive $50,000.

RELATED: One Winning $1.537 Billion Mega Millions Ticket Sold in South Carolina: ‘A Historic Occasion’

By late October 2018, the Mega Millions jackpot had skyrocketed over $1 billion. A few days later, it was announced that a ticket purchased in South Carolina matched the numbers (5, 28, 62, 65, 70 and Mega Ball 5) for the $1.537 billion haul.

“The moment we’ve been waiting for finally arrived, and we couldn’t be more excited,” Gordon Medenica, the director of the Mega Millions Group, said in a statement at the time. “This is truly a historic occasion.”