Eugene Brown of Menifee is known as a prankster. He once told his wife that one of her favorite singers had died so he could record her reaction.
So you can understand why she might not believe him when he showed her his $5 million lottery ticket.
She’s also a teacher, hence the low tolerance for nonsense.
He eventually convinced her that it wasn’t a gag —the family had really become one of California’s latest lottery millionaires.
Brown bought the winning ticket when he was recently out with their toddler so his wife could take a little breather. The pair headed out for breakfast and a walk, according to California Lottery officials.
The ARCO ampm in Menifee, at Newport and Menifee roads, is a regular stop for Brown, who picks up Scratchers there. On this day, Dad and the tyke stopped together and he bought a ticket.
“If she hadn’t asked me to go out, I might not have gone to the store,” Brown said. “Somebody else would’ve gotten that ticket. But everything lined up in the universe.”
When the pair got home from their amble, Brown scratched his tickets. He won $75! Then he won what he thought was $5,000. But he wasn’t sure, so he showed his Maximum Millions ticket to his wife.
She told him it was $5 million. Then, sure it was a prank, he said, she asked him calmly to take out the garbage.
It took some convincing, but Brown persuaded his wife they were a few million dollars richer. He told lottery officials he planned to pay off his house then put the rest into a trust.
Winning a big prize in the lottery is extremely rare.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are about 1 in 292 million; Mega Millions, about 1 in 290.4 million; SuperLotto Plus, 1 in 41.4 million. Scrachers odds vary depending on the game, according to the California Lottery, with the odds of winning any sort of prize across all Scratchers at about 1 in 5.
Southern California has been on a roll with — again, exceedingly rare — jackpot prize winners. Two of the four Powerball jackpot winners in 2025 were from SoCal, with a winner picking up $204.5 million at an Arleta 7-Eleven in early June and a $515 million Powerball ticket sold in Anaheim.
