Two Florida women win huge $4 million lottery on the same day — they were just half a mile apart

Someone from a town or neighborhood hitting the jackpot is an event that also triggers excitement among others in the vicinity. But in an incredible turn of events, two women from Florida won $4 million in Mega Millions lottery prizes, at stores located within a mile of each other. Reana Mahaney, 60, and Megan Chora, 40, of Largo, matched the same numbers and missed out on one, which prevented them from winning the mega prize. With the odds combined, the lucky winners had a two in 25,000,000 chance of achieving the feat, according to The Independent.

Going Beyond Defying Odds

Two Mega Millions tickets that turned out to be worth $4 million apiece were sold at two different locations of the same supermarket chain, Publix. According to the official press release of the Florida Lottery, both stores were located on Ulmerton Road in Largo. Google Maps shows that the two locations are just a seven-minute walk from each other.

Chora drew her ticket in the store located at 10500 Ulmerton Road, while Mahaney drew her ticket at the store located at 10411 Ulmerton Road. Following their wins, the two stores also received a $5,000 bonus commission for selling the tickets. Both of their tickets matched all five white ball numbers, but didn’t match the Mega Ball, Florida Lottery said in its press release. As they missed out on the mega prize, they received the runner-up prizes of $1 million each. However, coincidentally, both women had also spent an extra dollar for the Megaplier which quadrupled the two prizes.

Chora claimed the cash first on October 30, while Mahaney collected her prize on November 5, as per the lottery. They both beat a one in 12,607,306 chance of winning the second-level prizes in Mega Millions according to the lottery.

In a similarly incredible incident, two thousand people in North Carolina won the same prize in the state lottery with the same set of four numbers. In total, they cashed out $7.8 million in the Carolina Pick 4 drawing. 

The number chosen by all of them was the classic set of 0-0-0-0. They all set the record for the highest cash out on the single Pick 4 drawing, according to state lottery officials. After the drawing, dozens of the lucky winners showed up at the lottery's headquarters in Raleigh to claim their prize money. The NC Education Lottery shared a photo on Twitter showing the long line of people stretched in front of the building. The rest of the winners had 180 days to collect their prizes. 

The 2000 people also beat the odds of 1 in 10,000 after matching all four of NC Education Lottery’s Pick 4 numbers. Officials for the NC Education Lottery said in a statement that “Quads” are among the most popular number combinations for lottery players. The previous record for the highest Pick 4 lottery payout was $7.5 million in 2012 when the winning numbers were another set of quads, 1-1-1-1.