Odd News
Man finds out about $3M lottery jackpot, month after draw
Almeida displaying the dummy cheque
A UTAH man who decided to take two trips to Idaho to buy Mega Millions tickets ended up winning $3 million — but he didn’t know until a month later.
J. Refugio Gonzalez Almeida told Idaho Lottery officials he regularly drives to Malad to buy lottery tickets, and he ended up making two trips in one weekend to make sure he had enough tickets for the July 4 Mega Millions drawing, when the jackpot was about $400 million.
“Playing the Lottery is my hobby. When I didn’t win the jackpot on that Friday, I thought ‘I need a ticket for the 4th of July,’ so I drove back to Malad on Saturday,” he said. “I bought all the games, including Mega Millions.
I had a lot tickets.” Almeida said he didn’t return to Malad to check his tickets until a month later. “I had $2, $8, not a lot. And then they scanned this one and told me I had to take it to the Lottery Commission.
So here I am,” Almeida told officials. Almeida’s ticket matched the first five numbers, earning a $1 million prize that was transformed into $3 million when the Megaplier number for the drawing came up 3.
The winner said he plans to invest his prize money. “I am taking this right to the bank and depositing it,” he said. -upi.com
Odd News
Message in bottle floats from Canada to Ireland in 13 years
A message in a bottle launched by visitors to Newfoundland’s Bell Island was found washed up on an Irish beach nearly 13 years later, after apparently crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Kate Gay said she was walking a Dingle Peninsula beach this week when she spotted the wine bottle with a sheet of paper inside.
Gay showed the bottle to members of Creative Ireland NeartnaMacharaí during a meeting at her house that evening, and they broke the bottle open.
The note, written by a couple named Brad and Anita, was dated Sept. 12, 2012. The letter described the couple’s day trip to Bell Island.
There was a phone number on the letter, but there was no answer when group members tried to call.
The Maharees Heritage and Conservation group posted photos of the bottleto social media on Monday, and within an hour group members were messaging with Anita.
Group member Martha Farrell said Anita reported that she and Brad had married in 2016 and are still together to this day. -upi.com
Odd News
Woman earns world record for collection of 15,485 egg cups
A Spanish woman who has been collecting egg cups for over 50 years earned a Guinness World Record when her collection was tallied at 15,485 items.
María José Fuster recruited two witnesses to help her tally her collection at a community center in her hometown of Campo, Spain.
Fuster’s collection includes multiple patterns, colors, designs and even novelty cups bearing the images of characters including Superman, Betty Boop and Garfield.
Fuster maintains two blogs related to her hobby — one to catalog each piece, and one to list the names of the people who have donated egg cups to her collection.
Some of her most prized egg cups, about 1,143 of them, are currently on display at a local museum.
-upi.com
