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A whirlwind road trip to see country music star Zach Bryan in concert ended on an even better note for a Southern California mother and son, thanks to winning a California Lottery Scratcher ticket.
Daniel Magallen and AJ Tamraz of Laguna Niguel traveled 430 miles Saturday to see Brian perform that night at the Golden 1 Center as a birthday present for AJ, who just turned 18 in October. I drove to Sacramento.
AJ says it was a great show, but it happened very quickly. On Sunday, they were driving home on Interstate 5 when they encountered heavy traffic in the Central Valley.
“We both needed to go to the bathroom, so we stopped at Love’s Truck Stop in a small town called Santanella,” AJ told KTLA.
It was still a long drive, so they went to the bathroom, bought a few bottles of water, and planned to get back on the road soon.
Playing the lottery did not initially occur to them. That is until Daniel noticed a new holiday-themed Peppermint Payout Scratcher ticket.
“She came back from the car and gave me a $20 bill, so I went back to the car and went to the vending machine,” AJ said.
After pressing the button on the four tickets, he returned to the car to try his luck.
Both of my mom’s tickets were losers. So was AJ’s first work. But when he started drawing the fourth ticket, he saw a payout equal to winning number 3.
“First I scratched it and saw the number 50, then $250, and I was excited,” AJ said. “Then I saw commas and more zeros.”
AJ couldn’t legally buy a lottery ticket two months ago, but he won the equivalent of $250,000.
“My mom started crying. She was in shock,” he recalled. “Hey, what did I just do?”
AJ Tamraz’s $250,000 winning California Lottery scratcher. December 2, 2024. (AJ Tamraz)
AJ and Daniel made it home safely that night, spending 14 hours in heavy holiday traffic. On Monday, they visited the California Lottery district office in Costa Mesa, where AJ received an oversized ceremonial check as his winnings.
After taxes, he expects net income to be between $170,000 and $190,000.
He said he plans to use the money to pay off his mother’s car loan, credit card debt and six months’ worth of rent.
“She can breathe and I can help her. It’s something I’ve always dreamed of,” AJ told KTLA.
Lottery officials were unable to independently verify the winning ticket because it typically takes several weeks for the California Lottery to verify a winner’s claim.
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