A Mountain View man gave hope to the thousands of people who religiously purchase Scratchers games for years after he scored $7.5 million on one after buying them for nearly two decades, California Lottery officials said.  

Joel McCauley regularly headed into Mountain View’s Liquor, Tobacco & More shop on Rengstorff Avenue to buy Scratchers on his way to work. 

“After purchasing and playing a game, he’ll scan it in the store to check if it’s a winner, then head out to his truck and off to work,” said a spokesperson for the lottery.  

At first, McCauley thought he had won $7,500 — he had hit wins of $10,000 a few times before, he said. But he was astonished to realize he had actually won $7.5 million.  

“So, I turned my truck around and took the ticket home to leave it there,” the California Lottery quoted him as saying.  

McCauley apparently went along with his day as usual, reporting to work. He doesn’t plan on quitting his job, the lottery said.  

“Instead, he intends to invest his winnings and keep driving his truck to work every day.” 

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.